Evaluation of Character Association in Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) Genotypes for Yield and Yield Related Traits

Abstract

One hundred and seventy barley germplasm lines (101 two rowed and 69 six rowed) and three standard checks (BH393 six rowed, BH946 six rowed and BH885 two rowed) were evaluated for ten quantitative traits using augmented block design consisting of 10 complete blocks during rabi season of 2014-2015 at Wheat and Barley section research farm, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana. Grain yield per plant exhibited strong positive association with biological yield/plant, number of grains/spike, number of tillers/plant and 1000 seed weight for both the two rowed as well as six rowed barley genotypes. Path coefficient analysis revealed that all the characters had direct and positive association with grain yield/plant except peduncle extrusion length which had negative direct effect in case of two rowed barley. Biological yield/plant, harvest index, number of tillers/plant, days to 75% flowering and peduncle extrusion length had positive direct effects on grain yield/plant for the six rowed barley. This suggested that selection will be quite efficient in enhancing yield and its contributing traits in context of germplasm evaluated.