“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 25th September to 15th 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 55th 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.