Character Association of Yield and its components in Sesame

A study on the extent of association between yield and other selected agronomic traits of Sesame was carried out to determine the relationships among agronomic traits for enhanced progress in crop improvement. Yield related traits studied included; days to flower, days to maturity, plant height, number of branches, number of capsules per plant, capsule length, number of seeds per capsule, thousand-seed weight, oil content and seed yield. Three varieties of Sesame (NCRIBEN 01M, NCRIBEN 02M and Yandev) were evaluated in a Split Plot Design with three replications arranged in a randomized design. Data were analyzed for statistical processing and simple linear correlation, using STAR computer software version 2.0.1. Estimate of correlation coefficient (the inherent association between two variables] was obtained using the spearman rank correlation formula. Correlation studies revealed that yield per plant was positive and significantly correlated with yield per plot (r=0.63) and number of seeds per capsule (r=0.50) that most of the traits were significantly correlated with yield per plant. The results from this research revealed that high level of genetic variability exists with regards to seed yield and its component traits in the studied germplasm, thus, warrant effective selection for further improvement.