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# ESTIMATION OF GENETIC VARIABILITY IN GROWTH PARAMETERS OF OIL PALM (ELAEIS GUINEENSIS JACQ.) AT EARLY STAGE

S.C. Narayan¹*, A. Kumar¹ and Kumari S.²

¹R.R.S., Madhopur, ²KVK, Madhopur

*Corresponding author (S C Narayan) : Email: scnarayan@gmail.com

## ABSTRACT

The Oil palm *Elaeis guineensis* (Jacq) is a perennial plant and belongs to the family Arecaceae and order Arecales. The global production of vegetable oils has made tremendous impact of which progress made by palm oil, soybean, rapeseed and sunflower oil is worth mentioning. The planting of improved oil palm varieties is critical to long-term high production efficiency and also to the sustainabil-ity of the crop. These germplasm were evaluated in Randomized Block Design in three replications. The palms were planted in triangular design. Observations were recorded on three randomly selected palms. Observations were recorded palm height, palm girth, number of leaves, rachis length, number of leaflets, leaflet length, leaflet width, petiole depth, petiole width and petiole length. Higher genotypic value was for the same characters. Highest phenotypic coefficient of variation (35.02) and genotypic coefficient of variation (33.29) by petiole depth, and lowest PCV (7.85) and GCV (6.12) by leaflet length. Rachis length shown highest (93.76) heritability % and petiole width the lowest (60%). Number of leaflets shown highest genetic advance (17.11).

**Key words:** Oil palm, PCV, GCV, heritability.

The Oil palm *Elaeis guineensis* (Jacq) is a perennial plant and belongs to the family Arecaceae and order Arecales. The global production of vegetable oils has made tremendous impact of which progress made by palm oil, soybean, rapeseed and sunflower oil is worth mentioning. The planting of improved oil palm varieties is critical to long-term high production efficiency and also to the sustainabil-ity of the crop. The existence of genetic variability in breeding programs of palm oil has been reported by several authors (Musa *et al.*, 2004; Rafii *et al.*, 2002) reported that high heritability estimate is correlated to the high genetic gain in bunch production, which is one of the most important characteristic for oil production, as well as the oil content in the bunch. The breeding of this crop is limited Due to the long period of evaluation and the cost of this evaluation in order to achieve a cultivar so breeding in this crop is limited (Rance *et al.*, 2001). Current commercial oil palm planting materials are composed by a mixture of dura (D) x pisifera (P) or tenera (T) hybrids from non-fully inbred parents, thus presenting considerable genetic variability between and within the hybrids, depending on the relatedness and inbreeding status among their D and P parents. The purpose of this study was to estimate the total genotypic variability present in the oil palm genotypes during its early vegetative growth stage.

## MATERIALS AND METHODS

The present study was carried out at Regional Research Station, Madhopur, Bihar. The experimental materials consist of ten genotypes NRCOP31, NRCOP32, NRCOP33, NRCOP34, NRCOP35, NRCOP36, NRCOP37, NRCOP38, NRCOP39 and NRCOP40 of Oil palm obtained from A.I.C.R.P on oil palm. These germplasm were evaluated in Randomized Block Design

in three replications. The palms were planted in triangular design. Observations were recorded on three randomly selected palms. Observations were recorded palm height, palm girth, number of leaves, rachis length, number of leaflets, leaflet length, leaflet width, petiole depth, petiole width and petiole length. Genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variations were calculated as per Burton (1952) while genetic advance and genetic advance as percent of mean were calculated as per Lush (1949).

## RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A wide range of variability was observed for almost all the characters under study. Phenotypic variances was greater than genotypic variances for whole traits. Highest phenotypic value (87.8) was observed for height of palm among all the characters and lowest (0.02) was for petiole width. Higher phenotypic value was observed in palm height, rachis length and number of leaflets. Similarly, highest genotypic value (74.72) was observed for height of palm among all the characters and lowest (0.01) was for petiole width. Higher genotypic value was for the same characters. Highest phenotypic coefficient of variation (35.02) and genotypic coefficient of variation (33.29) by petiole depth, and lowest PCV (7.85) and GCV (6.12) by leaflet length. Rachis length shown highest (93.76) heritability % and petiole width the lowest (60%). Number of leaflets shown highest genetic advance (17.11). Petiole depth recorded maximum genetic advance as % of mean (65.21) while leaflet length had shown lowest (9.84) genetic advance as % of mean. It indicates that parameters with higher values of genotypic and phenotypic values can be useful for selecting the genotypes improvement process. These results are
<table><caption>**Table-1** : Estimation of phenotypic and genotypic variances, phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation, heritability, genetic advance and genetic advance as percent of mean for various characters in oil palm germplasm.</caption><thead><tr><th>Characters</th><th>Phenotypic variance</th><th>Genotypic variance</th><th>PCV</th><th>GCV</th><th>Heritability (%)</th><th>Genetic Advance</th><th>Genetic advance as % of mean</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>SEEDLING HEIGHT</td><td>87.80</td><td>74.72</td><td>10.35</td><td>9.55</td><td>85.10</td><td>16.42</td><td>18.15</td></tr><tr><td>SEEDLING GIRTH</td><td>9.58</td><td>8.40</td><td>10.80</td><td>10.11</td><td>87.68</td><td>5.59</td><td>19.51</td></tr><tr><td>No OF LEAVES</td><td>4.99</td><td>4.15</td><td>14.26</td><td>13.01</td><td>83.22</td><td>3.83</td><td>24.45</td></tr><tr><td>RACHIS LENGTH</td><td>73.22</td><td>68.66</td><td>13.07</td><td>12.65</td><td>93.76</td><td>16.52</td><td>25.25</td></tr><tr><td>No OF LEAFLETS</td><td>78.56</td><td>73.62</td><td>16.03</td><td>15.52</td><td>93.71</td><td>17.11</td><td>30.96</td></tr><tr><td>LEAFLETS LENGTH</td><td>5.31</td><td>3.23</td><td>7.85</td><td>6.12</td><td>60.89</td><td>2.89</td><td>9.84</td></tr><tr><td>LEAFLET WIDTH</td><td>0.13</td><td>0.07</td><td>17.81</td><td>13.05</td><td>53.73</td><td>0.41</td><td>19.71</td></tr><tr><td>PETIOLE DEPTH</td><td>0.26</td><td>0.23</td><td>35.02</td><td>33.29</td><td>90.39</td><td>0.95</td><td>65.21</td></tr><tr><td>PETIOLE WIDTH</td><td>0.02</td><td>0.01</td><td>21.77</td><td>16.86</td><td>60.0</td><td>0.17</td><td>26.91</td></tr><tr><td>PETIOLE LENTGH</td><td>0.03</td><td>0.02</td><td>13.84</td><td>11.79</td><td>72.49</td><td>0.29</td><td>20.68</td></tr></tbody></table>

similar to the findings of Musa *et al.* (2004) and Okwuagwu *et al.* (2008). Data presented in Table-1.

## ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors thank Dr. S. Arulraj, Dr. H.P. Maheswarappa and Dr. R.K. Mathur for their valuable guidance.

## REFERENCES

1. Rafii, M., Rajanaidu, N., Jalani, B., Kushairi, A., (2002). Performance and heritability estimations on oil palm progenies tested in different environments. *J. Oil Palm Res.* 14, 15–24.

2. Musa, B.B., Saleh, G.B., Loong, S.G., (2004) Genetic variability and broad-sense heritability in two Deli-AVROS

D × P breeding populations of the oil palm (*Elaeis guineensis* Jacq.). SABRAO J. Breed. Genet. 36, 13–22.

3. Okwuagwu CO, Okoye MN, Okolo EC, Ataga CD, et al. (2008) Genetic variability of fresh fruit bunch yield in Deli/dura x tenera breeding populations of oil palm (*Elaeis guineensis* Jacq.) in Nigeria. *J. Tropical Agric.* 46: 52-57.

4. Lam, M.K., Tan, K.T., Lee, K.T., Mohamed, A.R., (2009) Malaysian palm oil: surviving the food versus fuel dispute for a sustainable future. *Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev.* 13, 1456–1464.

5. Burton, G.W. (1952). Quantitative inheritance in grasses. Proe. 6th Intern. Grass land. Cong. 1: 277-288.

6. Lush, J.L. (1949). Animal breeding plans. The collegiate Press, Ames. IOWA, Ed. 3.