A field investigation was undertaken on brinjal at AICRP on Vegetable Crops, Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar. The analysis of variance showed a wide spectrum of variability among the set of germplasms. High estimates of heritability coupled with higher genetic advance were observed for the characters like number of fruits perplant (96.51, 73.26), fruit weight (96.01, 49.30) and fruit yield perplant (92.76, 75.52). Fruit yield per plant, the most important economic trait showed positive and significant association with number of branches/plant, number of fruits/plant and fruit weight. The path coefficient analysis revealed that number of fruits per plant and fruit weight exhibited maximum direct effect on fruit yield at genotypic level. All 32 germplasm were grouped into 8 genetically diverse clusters. The clustering pattern does not necessary to bear any relevance with geographical origin of the germplasm. On the basis of clustering mean, the promising germplasm producing higher breeding values for important quantitative traits are BBSR-202, BBSR195-1, IIHR-7, BB-7, BB-26 and SM6–6 and would be useful in improvement programme of brinjal through selection and hybridization.
