Studies On Mutation Breeding In Bhendi (abelmoschus Esculentus (l.)). Bhendi

STUDIES ON MUTATION BREEDING IN BHENDI (Abelmoschus esculentus (L.)). Bhendi

(or)

okra

scientifically

called

Abelmoschus

esculentus belonging to the family malvaceae this is commonly known as lady’s finger.

It is the sixth important popular

vegetable crop widely grown under varying climatic conditions in almost all parts of India, throughout the year. In India bhendi is grown in an area of 0.35 million hectares with a production of 3.5 million tones.

In Tamil Nadu it is grown in an area of 5,

160 hectares with a production of 38, 227 metric tones (FAO, 2007).

It contributes 5.5 and 3.86 percent of total area and

production of vegetable respectively; However, the present productivity is only 7.52 metric tones per hectare. Even though bhendi is cultivated to a larger extent and throughout the year, the productivity is very low. There is not much variability in bhendi in the Indian subcontinent and most of the variabilities give poor yield and are highly susceptible to the yellow vein mosaic virus.

Variability is a prerequisite for any

breeding programme to evolve high yielding varieties with other desirable attributes. Induced mutations can be used to generate useful variation in quantitatively inherited characters. Though mutation breeding has been adopted in many crop plants and considerable improvement has been achieved, bhendi which is an important vegetable crop of Afro-Asian countries has not been subjected to systematic mutation breeding so for.

In

bhendi the introduction of genetic variability through interspecific hybridization has been relatively difficult because it is possible only through ovule and embryo culture method.

Consequently

improvement in this crop was mainly brought about through selection. In the light of the above the present study has been proposed to study the mutation breeding in bhendi.