Identification of phenotypic traits to improve bunch weight in Musa spp through genetic variability and correlation analysis

Abstract

An experiment material comprised of 24 banana hybrids were evaluated to study genetic variability and correlation coefficient analysis for components traits associated with bunch weight in banana. The magnitude phenotypic coefficient of variation was higher than genotypic coefficient of variation for all traits. High heritability showed in all the ten characters. High heritability (98.99) with high genetic advance (124.43) was recorded for finger weight. Bunch weight has strong positive association with finger weight (0.89), pseudostem height (0.86) and total number of fingers per hand (0.81). Path coefficient analysis showed maximum positive direct effect on bunch weight was exerted by finger weight (0.553) followed by height of pseudostem (0.447), total number of fingers per hand (0.347), days to harvest (0.142) and number of hands per bunch (0.105) indicating importance of these characters and can be strategically used to improve the bunch weight of banana. The result of this study indicated height of pseudostem, finger weight, number of hands per bunch, total number of fruit per bunch and days to harvest showed high heritability coupled genetic advance, correlation and positive direct path coefficient. Hence, selecting these traits can be used as primary selection criteria for banana yield improvement program.