Panicle Plant Per Plant for Evolution of High Yielding Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa wild.) Progenies in Pakistan

Author(s) : Hassan Munir

Abstract:

Quinoa, a halophyte native of South America is famous for its acclimatization in new environments and adverse climatic conditions. Inadequate native quinoa production has encouraged its cultivation in new regions. One hundred and fifty quinoa genotypes belonging to a variety of origins were sown in the field under Faisalabad conditions to study relationship among morphological and physiological traits. Panicle Plant-1 had the highest direct effect on yield. Harvest index also emerged as the key parameter for seed yield determination perhaps being a yield parameter and laborious trait some other parameters are needed for quick assessment of high yielding quinoa under indigenous Pakistani conditions. Among biochemical traits, proline contents showed high positive direct on grain yield. On the basis of this information, a comprehensive quinoa improvement program was initiated for the selection of high yielding quinoa genotypes under shuttle breeding program carried out at two locations for the rapid segregation generation advancement of quinoa population. Simultaneous single plant selection in segregating generation (F2 ‒ F¬6) was done for proline contents initially during vegetative phase and subsequent selection of panicle plant-1 to constitute high yielding progenies. High yielding progenies were evaluated at three locations which showed significant improvement in economic yield over unselected accessions.