Abstract

                                Eighty sesame genotypes involving single stemmed and shybranching collected from different states of the country and also from outside the country were evaluated for variability, heritability and genetic advance as per cent of mean for eight traits viz., days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, plant height, number of branches per plant, number of capsules per plant, 100 seed weight, seed yield per plant and oil content. High GCV and PCV was observed for plant height, number of branches per plant, number of capsules per plant, and seed yield per plant suggesting that these characters are under the influence of genetic control. Hence these characters can be relied upon simple selection for further improvement. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance was observed for plant height, number of branches per plant, number of capsules per plant, and seed yield per plant. This indicates less influence of environment in expression of these characters making them amenable for simple selection

Key words : Sesame, variability, co-efficient of variation, heritability and genetic advance