Vol. 7, Issue 12, Part B (2025)

Mustard is one of the important oilseed crop produced worldwide. India is one of the leading producers of mustard crop but, despite having the third largest acreage its production remains stagnant. Therefore, intensive research is required for identification and selection of characters that contribute directly or indirectly to the increase in yield of the oilseed crop. In this context, the character association and path analysis studies were conducted during Rabi 2024-25 at the SUB Agricultural Research Farm, affiliated with the School of Agriculture, Sanjeev Agrawal Global Educational University, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Ten Indian mustard genotypes were sown under Randomized Block Design in three replications and observations were recorded on for eleven quantitative traits. Treatments mean sum of square for all traits were found significant except for main raceme length which shows presence of sufficient genetic variation among the genotypes tested. The highest estimates of heritability in broad sense were observed Number of siliqua/plant and 1000 seed weight showed 81.32, 94.40 percent of heritability. Genetic advance was highest for number of siliqua per plant (38.92%) and lowest for main raceme length (3.98%). Genotypic correlation of five traits viz. Results showed five traits were positively and significantly correlated with seed yield per plant viz. plant height (0.4987), number of primary branches (0.5734), number of secondary branches (0.4162), siliqua of main raceme (0.2249) and number of siliqua per plant (0.4175) showed positive and significant correlation with seed yield per plant. Path coefficient analysis revealed that plant height (1.2067) and secondary branches (0.7846) exerted the strongest positive direct effects on seed yield/plant, establishing them as major selection criteria in mustard breeding. Seed yield/plant (0.1424) and 1000-seed weight (0.1286) also showed positive contributions, though of lesser magnitude. Therefore, these traits should be prioritized for selection and breeding to enhance seed yield in mustard genotypes.