Selection indices in some sainfon (Onobrichis sativa) populations

This study was carried out to determine extent and nature of genetic and non-genetic relationship between some plant characters and to determine selection indices for a selection program in 10 populations of sainfon (Onobrichis sativa) using the best combination of the attributes and their utilization in an indirect selection. Ten accessions, randomly taken from existing accessions of the Forests and Rangelands Gene Bank were used in this study. Accessions were sown in a randomized complete block design with 3 replications. Ten quantitative morphologic and phonologic characters were recorded from seven individual plants per plot. Genetic variance component of the characters were estimated using expected mean square from the table of analysis of variance. This was used to estimate broad sense heritability. The variance covariance matrices were estimated for each of the total, replication, treatment, error and genetic components of variance for treatments using analysis of variance and covariances. Using phenotypic and genotypic variance and covariance matrices and broad sense heritability as the relative economic value, index coefficients were estimated for different combinations of the attributes. The indices with the best genetic gain were used to estimate index value of the studied populations.