Genetic Variability and Inter-relationship for Yield and Its Components in Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.)

Present work was carried out to evaluate 19 genotypes of safflower in a randomized block design with three replications. Observations were recorded for nine quantitative traits. Appreciable variability was displayed by all traits, especially seed yield per plant and seed yield. The heritability estimates range between 1.9 and 81.8 %. seed yield kg/ha correlated positively and not significant with all other traits except days to 50% flowering correlated negatively with seed yield. Seed yield per plant correlated positively and highly significant with number of heads/ plant, number of seeds/plant and number of seeds/head. 1000-seed weight was significantly negatively correlated with the number of seeds/head and days to 50% flowering. The correlation coefficient between seed yield/plant and five other traits were partitioned into direct and indirect effects. Maximum direct and positive effect on seed yield per plant was recorded by number of seeds per plant which had also a positive indirect effects with all other traits. Our results indicated that the genetic material studied had a considerable level of variability that could be exploited in future breeding programs. The study proposed the traits number of seeds per plant, number of heads per plant and number of seeds per head as a selection criteria.