Development of high yielding varieties with acceptable level of stability is an important objective of mulberry breeding programme. Thirty selected genotypes and three check varieties were evaluated for leaf yield and its components along with physio-biochemical parameters under rainfed condition. Principal component analysis generated twenty eight PCs, out of which nine PCs exhibited more than one Eigen value explaining 78.6% of variability among the traits studied. Based on biplot analysis, leaf area, leaf moisture, moisture retention capacity, length of longest shoot, primary shoots per plant, total shoots length, total soluble sugars, leaf area index and chlorophyll a/b ratio were identified as important yield contributing traits under rainfed condition. The AMMI analysis of variance across three seasons revealed that the leaf yield was significantly (p<0.01) affected by seasons/environments (E), genotypes (G) but not by G × E interaction. Environment significantly explained about 93.2% of the total sum of squares indicating that diverse seasonal environments caused most of the variations in yield. AMMI stability value (ASV) identified genotype PYD 21, PYD 06, PYD 04, PYD 28, and PYD 01 as the most stable, while PYD 13, PYD 20 as least stable. From the present investigation, Genotypes PYD 08, PYD 15, PYD 27, PYD 01 and PYD 07 were identified as high yielding with better stability across seasons over C-2038 and could be further evaluated to identify suitable variety for rainfed sericulture.
Mulberry sericulture is an alternative farm-based livelihood activity and is practiced in various climatic conditions. A field and rearing experiment was conducted to evaluate the mulberry variety S-1635 for leaf and silk cocoon productivity under alternative pruning and rearing schedule during autumn 2019 and spring 2020 seasons. The leaf moisture content, leaf fall at harvest, primary shoots plant -1 , longest shoot length, total shoots length and leaf yield plant -1 was significantly higher in new pruning schedule in both the season. The new mulberry crop schedule recorded higher leaf productivity to a tune of 12% in autumn and double in comparison to existing schedule practiced by farmers. The role of optimal weather and period of crop growth had a greater impact on leaf yield during autumn and spring crops, respectively. Most of the reeling cocoon and silk parameters obtained from fed leaves differed significantly with pruning schedules in both the seasons. Effective rate of rearing and weight was significantly higher in new pruning schedule while single cocoon weight was higher in existing schedule. The new silkworm rearing schedule recorded 10-12% higher cocoon yield in both Agrahayani (75.67 kg) and Falguni (62.08 kg) crops compared to existing crop schedule. The investigation revealed that delaying the mulberry pruning and silkworm rearing date by two weeks effectively increased both leaf and cocoon output. The new mulberry sericulture crop schedules will be a climate change adaptation strategy to maintain production potential in the lower-gangetic region.
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