Central Agricultural Research Institute, Port, Blair, Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
The nature and magnitude of genetic variability was studied in fifteen varieties of banana. High genetic co-efficient of variation was observed for weight of full bunch, no. of hands/bunch, no. of fingers per hand, weight of each finger, weight of peel, weight of rachis. All the characters under study exhibited high broad sense heritability estimates. Since plant height, weight of each finger, days of flowers, weight of pulp, weight of rachis had high genetic co-efficient of variation along with high genetic advance as well as high heritability, improvement in these characters can be brought out by practicising clonal selection. High yielding varieties as ‘Basrai’ Rajbala, Karim Kadali and Poovan (Khatta Champa) are recommended for genetal cultivation in Andamans.
