Index Selection in Brown Sarson*

Twenty three lines of brown sarson (Brassica campestris L. var. dichotoma Duthie and Full.) were grown in a randomized block design with six replications. Sixty three selection indices were constructed taking six yield contributing characters, namely grain yield per plant, plant height, number of primary branches per plant, length of siliqua, number of days to flower and siliqua index. All the selection indices gave greater relative efficiency than that of straight selection based on grain yield alone though only a few were superior to selection for number of primary branches. A progressive increase in the efficiency of selection was observed with the inclusion of every additional character in the selection index formula. Number of primary branches was found to be the most important yield contributing character.