Vol. 9, Issue 4, Part K (2025)

An experiment was conducted during the Rabi season of 2015-16 at the Oilseed Research Farm of C.S. Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur. The study involved 21 single crosses obtained from a 7 × 7 diallel cross, along with their seven parental lines of Indian mustard. Each genotype, including parents and their F₁ hybrids, was grown in two 5-meter rows, with a spacing of 45 cm between rows and 10 cm between plants. The sowing took place in December, and the experiment was laid out in a randomized block design with three replications. The observations were recorded on five randomly selected plants for days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, plant height (cm), number of primary and secondary branches per plant, number of siliquae per plant, seeds per siliqua, 1000-seed weight (g), biological yield per plant (g), harvest index (%), oil content (%), and seed yield per plant (g). Heritability in the narrow sense was estimated in the F₁ generation using the method outlined by Crumpacker and Allard (1962), while the expected genetic advance was computed by Robinson et al. (1949). Considerable variability was noted among the genotypes across all measured traits, reflected in the wide ranges, means, and variances. High narrow-sense heritability estimates were observed, especially for seed yield per plant (0.02 g) and 1000-seed weight (0.29 g), indicating substantial genetic influence. The genetic advance as a percentage of the mean varied from 0.07% for harvest index to 22.16% for number of siliquae per plant, suggesting significant potential for improvement through selection. These findings highlight the importance of such studies in guiding effective breeding strategies for Indian mustard.