Implication of Multivariate Analysis in Breeding to Obtain Desired Plant Type of Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench

Twenty diverse okra genotypes were evaluated to assess the genetic diversity based on quantitative morphological and qualitative biochemical traits in a randomized block design during 2015-16. On the basis of D2 analysis, the 20 genotypes were clustered into five groups. Cluster I constituted the largest group (10 genotypes) followed by cluster II (7 genotypes). The cluster III, IV and V contains only 1 genotype in each cluster. Among phytochemical characters, carotenoids alone contribute highest percentage (39%) toward divergence, followed by chlorophyll a (31%) and anthocyanin (17%). The five principal components have accounted 81.19% of total variation and percent variation expected were 36.27% (PC1), 18.21% (PC2), 16.42% (PC3), 5.91% (PC4) and 4.38% (PC5), respectively. The PC1 has positive association with days to first flowering, followed by yield/plant, primary branches/plant, carotenoid and phenol contents. However, PC1 has negative association for fruits length, fruit diameter and ascorbic acid content. Therefore, the traits viz., days to first flowering, first flowering node and yield per plant should be given top priority in diverse parent selection for attempting high yielding along with important phytochemical properties in okra. Allocations of germplasm into different clusters were because of cumulative effect of number of characters.