Agro-morphometric Diversity Analysis in Carrot Germplasm from Indian Genebank

Carrot is a nutrient rich and commercially important root vegetable in India. A study was undertaken in rabi seasons of 2015-16 and 2016-17 to assess the agro-morphological diversity in 100 accessions collected from different regions of India and from other countries. Wide variation was observed in accessions for qualitative (root and core colour) and quantitative (plant length, root length and length, shoulder, root, core size, number of leaves per plant, total plant weight root yield etc.) traits. Maximum accessions had red and mixture of light red (45) to light purple roots (38). Only orange accessions had uniformity in root shape and colour. Wide variation was observed in root length (13.6-25.6 cm) and shoot length (25.0 - 88.3 cm). The study revealed wide variation in carrot germplasm maintained by Indian genebank, however, intra-population variation needs to be fixed before use in breeding.