Genetic Variability Studies in Castor Germplasm (Ricinus communis L.)

Forty diverse genotypes of castor (Ricinus communis L.) were evaluated during kharif, 2024 to estimate genetic variability, broad sense heritability, and genetic advance for 12 metric traits. The analysis of variance revealed significant amount of variation among the genotypes for all the traits studied. It was noted that the phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) was always higher than the genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV), indicating role of environment in governing the traits. Notably, traits like number of capsules on primary spike and total seed yield have high PCV and GCV implying the wide spectrum of variability for these traits. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance as a percentage of the mean was recorded for effective primary spike length, number of capsules on primary spike, number of effective spikes per plant, 100 seed weight and total seed yield. This indicates a predominant additive gene action in the expression of these traits, suggesting that direct selection for them would be rewarding towards genetic improvement of castor