GENETIC DIVERSITY AMONG COTTON (GOSSYPIUM HIRSUTUM L.) GERMPLASM FOR YIELD AND FIBRE TRAITS UNDER ARID CLIMATIC CONDITION

Climate change has drastically affected the performance of several agricultural crops. Cotton is an important fibre crop which is severely influenced by the climate change in recent years Presence of genetic variability among germplasm is a key source for selecting the genotypes that are more adapted to the agro-climatic conditions with respect to yield and fibre related traits. For this purpose, 180 cotton genotypes were sown under augmented design with recommended management practices. Data for the morphological, yield and fibre traits viz plant height (PH), CLCuD(%),bolls per plant, boll weight (g), yield/ plant (g), GOT (%), staple length (mm), mike (ug/inch), staple strength (g/tex) were recorded and analysed. The results of variance analysis revealed that significant variability was observed among genotypes for all the traits under study. PCA biplot showed that 26% variability was observed in PC1 and 15.5% in PC2. Genotypes no. 30 was found with distant yield and fibre characteristics. Through cluster analysis, total 180 cotton genotypes were grouped into nine different clusters. Group 7 and group 8 consist of 15 and 03 genotypes respectively. Genotypes among these two groups represent the higher CLCuD resistance, maximum yield per plant with better fibre traits. Phenotypic evaluation of cotton genotypes for different morphological, yield and fibre traits provide the basis for exploitation of best performing genotypes in the future breeding programme.