Vol. 8, Special Issue 8, Part C (2024)

Abstract: The experiment conducted using the set of 25 genotypes of safflower in three successive year’s during rabi 2020-21, rabi 2021-22 and rabi 2022-23 at Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya (IGKV), Raipur (C.G.) for estimation of the extent of diversity and to estimate the contribution of each character towards genetic diversity in safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) by Mahalanobis D² distance and grouping by Tocher’s method, these genotypes were grouped into five clusters. The maximum inter cluster distance was noted between cluster IV and cluster V (25.24) followed by cluster V and cluster II (16.77), cluster I and cluster V (14.50), cluster V and III (11.04), cluster II and cluster III (56.13) and cluster IV and cluster III (56.13). The contribution to the total divergence was estimated maximum for seed yield per plant (30.67%) followed by biological yield per plant (g) (20.33%), plant height (cm) (15.67%). Whereas number of seeds per capitulum (9.33%), harvest index (%) (8.33%), oil content (%) (7.33%), 100 seed weight (g) (4.34%), number of primary branches per plant (2.00%), number of effective capitulum per plant (1.00%), days to 50% flowering (0.67%) and days to maturity (0.33%) exhibited minimum contribution towards genetic divergence. According to cluster mean cluster IV recorded the first rank for the yield contributing traits viz., oil content %, number of effective capitulum per plant, number of primary branch per plant and number of seed per capitulum. It indicates that combination of these traits is very important towards the improvement of seed yield so accessions belonging to these clusters can be further used for genetic improvement.