“Barani Sarsoon” A Novel Combination of Enviable Genetic Characters of Rapeseed for Rainfed Areas

Abstract

The development of new crop varieties is a continuous process as old cultivars become susceptible to various biotic and abiotic stresses, thus decreasing the yield potential. The newly developed rapeseed variety “Barani Sarsoon” a high-yielding, disease resistant and drought tolerant has been developed through the selection method of breeding from the exotic material. A promising progeny of a single plant was selected and named “14CBN009”. The performance of “14CBN009” was further evaluated along with standard varieties in various replicated yield trials for six years from 2014-15 to 2018-19. The selected line “14CBN009” produced a higher grain yield (kg/ha) than the standard varieties in all replicated yield trials with a yield potential of 3378 kg/hectare which is tolerant to drought and resistant to diseases. The best sowing time for this variety is from 25^th September to 15^th October with a seed rate of 2.50 kg/acre. The seed contains 44.53% oil content. The main yield contributing characters of “14CBN009” are pods per plant, seeds per pod and thousand-seed weight. Based on the desirable phenotypic and genotypic characteristics, higher grain yield and oil content percentage, “14CBN009” was approved as a rapeseed variety with the name of “Barani Sarsoon” by the Punjab Seed Council in its 55^th meeting held on Sep 20, 2021, for commercial cultivation in the Punjab rainfed areas. Due to high yielding, drought and disease-tolerant characteristics, the new variety “Barani Sarsoon” will prove to be a good alternative to existing varieties and improve the production and income of the oilseed crops growers of the rainfed area.