VARIABILITY STUDIES FOR SOME QUANTITATIVE CHARACTERS IN WHITE ONION (ALLIUM CEPA L.) ADVANCE LINES

Abstract

Onion (Allium cepa L.) is an important spices vegetable consumed throughout the year. It also has high export potential and comes under cash crop apart from vegetables (Pandey, 1989). India is the second largest producer of onion in the world after China. Onion are used as a salad or cooked in various ways in all curries, fried or baked. It is also used in processed from e.g. flakes, powder paste, crush and pickles etc. The production of white onion is now becoming popular among farmers, producers and exporter. The exporters export the white onion from Maharashtra and Gujarat which has greater potential for dehydration. The work conducted on selection of suitable white onion is very scanty (Sethi et al., 1993). Thus for improving the efficiency of selection in any base population, the knowledge of genetic variability present in it is of prime importance to the breeder