ASSESSMENT OF GENETIC AND PHENOTYPIC VARIABILITY IN TOMATO

In order to initiate a crop breeding program, information about the variability in the available germplasm is of utmost importance. In the present experiment, aim was to estimate the various components of variation among twenty seven genotypes of tomato collected from different sources raised in open field conditions following randomized block design with three replications for a total of nine characters including yield and other attributes. Significant amount of variation was found in the germplasm. Out of the nine characters studied, all the genotypes showed highly significant differences for eight characters which has a direct impact on improvement for further selection, except number of flowers per cluster. High magnitude of phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation was recorded for traits like number of fruits per plant, gross yield per plant, number of fruit cluster per plant and average fruit weight which might be helpful for a breeder in improving the present genotypes through selection of above traits. High estimates of heritability combined with high genetic advance was recorded for number of fruits per plant (80.71), gross yield per plant (74.11), number of fruit cluster per plant (70.77), average fruit weight (65.38), fruit shape index (33.24), plant height (26.94) and days to 50% flowering (22.02), indicating that additive gene action plays a major role in governing these traits.