Unravelling the association among characters through correlation and Path analyses in dual purpose Oats (Avena sativa L.)

Recent rise in urbanization of cultivable lands to compensate increasing human population at the cost of agricultural production threatens the globe. So, the crop breeders got the responsibility to generate potential varieties possessing higher productivity to makeup with the future scarcity. Yield, a complex trait, is dependent on several attributes of the crop plant. Therefore, having clear knowledge on trait correlation and path coefficients assists the researchers to come up with the combination of component traits to breed genotypes those hit the maximum yield objective. In rabi 2021-22, 31 genotypes of oats were grown to record data on 12 fodder attributing and 12 grain attributing traits. Two separate trait association analyses were conducted using fodder and grain traits, respectively. Among fodder traits, plant height, number of leaves per plant, leaf length, leaf width, number of tillers per plant, dry matter yield and crop growth rate showed significant positive correlation with green fodder yield. Path analysis suggested that the tall plant with numerous tillers showing higher growth rate could be the indirect selection criteria for green fodder yield. Whereas among grain traits, there was a significant positive correlation of 1000 seed weight, flag leaf length, panicle length, no. of effective tillers per plant and spikelet number per panicle with grain yield per plant. Early flowering genotypes with increased number of effective tillers could be the selection index for grain yield as suggested by path coefficients.