Journal of Advances in Biology & Biotechnology

The present investigation was undertaken to assess the magnitude of genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance for yield and its contributing traits in local kharif brinjal genotypes of Assam. A total of 25 entries, comprising 24 local kharif brinjal genotypes and the check variety Kashi Himani from IIVR, were evaluated during kharif 2024 and kharif 2025 at the Experimental Farm, Department of Horticulture, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, Assam in a randomised block design with three replications. Observations were recorded for 19 quantitative traits in each season and were pooled to estimate genetic variability parameters. Pooled analysis of variance showed significant differences among the genotypes for all the traits studied, indicating the presence of substantial genetic variability. The phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) ranged from 6.13% in days to first harvest to 57.16% in the number of fruits per cluster, while the genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) ranged from 6.11% in days to first harvest to 54.66% in the number of fruits per cluster. The highest PCV and GCV were recorded for the number of fruits per cluster (57.16% and 54.66%, respectively), followed by the number of fruits per plant (49.69% and 49.66%), fruit yield per plant (41.01% and 40.71%) and average fruit weight (36.72% and 36.53%). Broad-sense heritability was highest for the number of fruits per plant (99.88%), followed by days to last harvest (99.82%). Genetic advance as a percentage of the mean was highest for number of fruits per cluster (107.69%), followed by the number of fruits per plant (102.25%). The combination of high heritability and high genetic advance observed for all the traits except days to first flowering, days to 50% flowering, days to first fruiting, days to 50% fruiting, days to first harvest and days to last harvest indicated the predominance of genetic effects and suggested good scope for selection. The findings indicate that the evaluated local kharif brinjal genotypes possess considerable genetic variability and may serve as useful material for future breeding programmes, subject to further evaluation across environments.