ABSTRACT
Okra is a traditional vegetable crop in Ethiopia but it has not given research attention and considered a minor crop. Therefore, this study was initiated with the objectives of estimating variability, heritability and genetic advance for tender fruit yield and yield related traits of Ethiopian okra collections. A total of 35 okra landraces from three districts (Guba, Mandura and Dangure) were evaluated for 22 agro-morphological and eight qualitative traits in 2017 at Pawe Agricultural Research Center in randomized complete block design. Results of analysis of variance showed significant differences among okra landraces for all traits and the landraces also distributed in different categories of qualitative traits. The landraces had number of tender fruits per plant ranged from 4.86 to 36.54 and 2.49 to 21.98 t ha-1 mean fruit yield per hectare. The estimates of genotypic (GCV) and phenotypic coefficients of variation (PCV) for 22 traits of 35 okra landraces were in the range between 2.95 and 54.92 and 4.96 and 55.22%, respectively. The broad sense heritability (H2) and genetic advance as percent of mean (GAM) estimated in the range between 35.36 and 99.6% and 3.62 and 112.66%, respectively. High GCV, PCV, H2 and GAM was estimated for plant height, number of primary branches/stem, internodes length, number of matured fruits per plant, weight of matured fruits per plant, dry weight of matured fruits/plant, number of seeds per fruit, number of tender fruits per plant and yield per hectare indicated the high heritability was due to the close correspondence between the genotypic and phenotypic variations as a result of relatively small contribution of the environment to the phenotype expression of the traits. The study results showed the presence of genetic variation among landraces for all traits suggested that selection could be effective to develop okra varieties for high fruit yield and other traits
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