Genetic Variations, Heritability and Genetic Advance Studies among Okra Accessions grown in different Agro-ecological Zones in Nigeria

Abstract

Some level of variation within crop varieties is highly important for its improvement with the aids of good plant breeding methods. A field research experiment was carried out with the aim to estimate genetic variation and heritability in the okra accessions grown in different agro-ecological zones in Nigeria. Twenty okra accessions were obtained from various locations in different agro-ecological zones of Nigeria. Twenty okra accessions were evaluated between April to August 2018 at Ekiti State University Teaching and Research Farm, Ekiti State. These twenty okra accessions constituted the treatment, which was lied out in a RCBD in a three replicates. The result were highly significant (p<0.01) for all the traits studied. Magnitude of the phenotypic coefficient of variances were slightly higher than genotypic coefficient of variances in this study which showed that environment did not much influence the estimates of genetic performance. The coefficient of phenotypic and genotypic variances were high in the traits studied. Heritability estimates ranges from 75.04% for days to 50% flowering to 98.85% for weight of 100 seeds. High heritability with high genetic advance were observed for all the studied traits indicating that they are governed by additive gene action and this could be improved through simple selection except days to 50% flowering with the lowest heritability value coupled with the lowest genetic advance value lesser than 10%.