Genetic divergence studies for yield and its attributes in sunflower (H elianthus annuus l.)

The present study was undertaken at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Nandyal during rabi, 2016-17. Seventy genotypes of sunflower were evaluated in a randomized complete block design replicated thrice for assessment of genetic diversity. Highly significant differences were observed for all the characters studied. The results of PCA revealed that the traits viz., plant height, head diameter, 100 achene weight, number of achenes per head, volume weight, and leaf area index can be utilized as selection criterion for increasing variability which can be harnessed in hybridization programmes to generate transgressive segregants.