Central Plantation Crops Research Institute, Kasaragod, Kerala, India
1Present address; Central Tobacco Research Institute, Rajahmundry-1.
Online published on 25 January, 2012.
Selection indices, genetic advance expected by selection based on them as well as relative improvement over straight selection using 17 growth characters and 12 yield components taken as a single group and combination of certain of them in seven other groups were worked out. As against an expected genetic advance of 57–11 due to straight selection, the advance was 284–694 due to a selection index based on all the characters, a relative improvement of 498%. A simpler index using the number of leaves and height of the plant alone at the time of transplanting gave a relative improvement of 332%.
