Abstract

                                Studies on genetic variability in onion exhibited significant differences among the ecotypes for most of the characters except for shape index indicating high magnitude of variability. The estimates of phenotypic coefficient of variation were high as compared to genotypic coefficient of variation. Very high values for heritability were observed for the characters, volume of bulb (96.50 %) followed by bulb yield (91.62%). All other characters showed high heritability except for pyruvic acid content (14.99%). The characters like weight of plant, bulb length, bulb diameter, volume of bulb and bulb yield per plant recorded very high heritability estimates coupled with high genetic advance guiding for improvement of these characters by selection.

Key words : Variability, heritability, genetic advance, onion