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NAME MOHAMMAD IRFAN Adm. No. 14/Ag/GPB/2016-M Division Genetics and Plant Breeding

Major Advisor Dr. Sabina Nasseer Asstt. Prof. Genetics and Plant Breeding. ( Saffron Research Station Pampore ) Member from major subject Dr. Mohd Ashraf Bhat (Prof. and Head, Division of Genetics and Plant Breeding FOA & RRS Wadura) Member from Minor subject Dr. Ashiq Hussain (Associate Prof. Agronomy) Member from Supporting subject Dr. Showket Maqbool ( Asstt. Prof. Statistics) Dean PG Nominee Dr. F. A. Pir ( Associate Prof. Agronomy) ADVISORY COMMITTE

Introduction  The saffron is an autumn flowering perennial plant  It is a sterile triploid plant, belonging to Iridaceae family.  Being sterile it fails to produce viable seeds, therefore it multiplies vegetatively  The female part of the flower is the actual saffron

Stigma Tepal AntherLeaves Stigma + style + ovary = pistilAnther + Filament = Stamen

PROPOSED TITLE OF RESEARCH  Characterization of Saffron for morphological, corm and quality traits  Morphological characterization of Indigenous and exotic collections of saffron

Objectives  To study Analysis of variance and components of phenotypic and genotypic Variability for morphological, corm and quality attributes.  To study character association among traits of economic worth/Cause and effect relationship among characters of economic worth.  To study genetic divergence among selected lines for identification of elite divergent traits showing economic gains for morphological, corm attributes.

TECHNICAL PROGRAMME 280 germplasm lines collected from different saffron growing areas. The material will be planted in 2 rows 0f 1.5m length with inter and intra row spacing of 20 and 10 cm, depth cm. DESIGN = RBD No. of replications = 2 17 beds / replication 8 lines / bed 18 pits / line 5 corms / pit

Characters to be studied  Floral Attributes No. of days to 50% flowering No. of flowers / line Total flower weight /line (gm) Outer tepal length (cm) Inner tepal length (cm) Outer tepal width (cm) Inner tepal width (cm)

Contd... Anther length (cm) Anther width (cm) Style length (cm) Stigma length (cm) Fresh Pistil weight/line (gm) Dry Pistil weight/line (gm)

.  Vegetative Parameters Adult leaf length (cm) Plant height (cm) No. of leaves / pit  Corm Attributes No. of days to 75% sprouting Big Corm Index Multiplication index Corm diameter

Component Analysis  Analysis of Variance: Verma et al (1987), Singh and Chaudhary (1977).  Character association at genotypic and phenotypic level: Al jibouri et al.(1958).  Divergence analysis (Rao,1952).  Genotypic and Phenotypic correlation coefficient.

Expected Research Findings  Saffron germplasm lines will be characterized for Morphological and corm attributes.  Saffron germplasm lines with elite traits can be identified.  Idea of extent of genetic diversity in the available germplasm.  High yielding lines with better quality attributes once identified can be multiplied as saffron varieties.