Variability, Heritability and Genetic Advance in Ethiopian Okra [Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Monech] Collections for Tender Fruit Yield and Other Agro-morphological Traits

Aim: Okra is grown as a wild plant in Ethiopia. However, the variability of the crop is not well studied. Therefore, this study was initiated with the objectives of estimating variability, heritability and genetic advance for tender fruit yield and yield related traits of Ethiopian okra collections.

Design: Experiment was conducted at Werer Agricultural Research Center in 2014 growing season. Treatments consisted of 23 local okra collections and two exotic varieties using a simple lattice designs with five incomplete blocks. Data were recorded from 25 quantitative and 10 qualitative traits.

Results: Results revealed the presence of significant differences (p<0.05) among genotypes for all traits except for internode and peduncle length and number of epicalyx. All Ethiopian okra collections except one exhibited tender fruit yield advantages up to 28.67 t ha-1 (144.8%) over the introduced variety, which performed below the local collections for all traits except 100 seed weight. Genotypic coefficient of variation ranged from 3.08 (number of epicalyx per flower) to 27.19% (primary branches per plant), while phenotypic coefficient of variation values ranged between 5.5% (number of epicalyx per flower) and 34.14% (mature pod per plant). Heritability in broad sense and genetic advance ranged from 12% (internodes length) to 85.89% (fruit ridges) and 2.3% (internode length) to 47.69% (number of primary branches per plant), respectively. Both heritability and genetic advance values were high for tender fruit yield, fruit length and fruit weight and other yield related traits. Genotypes also varied in their qualitative traits except flower color.

Conclusion: This study results showed Ethiopia has wide variation among local and exotic okra genotypes. Therefore it is necessary to conduct other collection, characterization and evaluation study to determine the genetic variability within Ethiopian okra collections and exotic genotypes for variety development and further breeding program.