ESTIMATION OF GENETIC VARIABILITY, HERITABILITY AND GENETIC ADVANCE FOR GROWTH AND YIELD COMPONENTS IN TIKHUR (CURCUMA ANGUSTIFOLIA ROXB.) Deo Shankar*, S. S. Rao, J. Singh 1 and S. C. Mukherjee 2 Shaheed Gundadhoor College of Agriculture and Research Station (Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya), Kumhrawand, Jagdalpur, Bastar - 494 005 (C. G.), India. 1 College of Agriculture & RRS (Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya), Boirdadar, Raigarh (Chhattisgarh), India. 2 College of Agriculture (Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya), Raipur - 492 006 (Chhattisgarh), India. Abstract An investigation was conducted to screen the superior tikhur genotypes and to identify the genetic divergence of quantitative characters under Bastar Plateau Agroclimatic Zone of Chhattisgarh, India. The experiment was conducted during kharif seasons 2010-11 and 2011-12 at Shaheed Gundadhoor College of Agriculture and Research Station (IGKV), Kumhrawand, Jagdalpur, Bastar (C.G.), India. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with 20 genotypes of tikhur with three replications. The genotypes were grown randomly in each replication/block in a total of 60 plots of 3.0 m × 2.4 m each containing 60 plants per plot. Observations were recorded from ten randomly selected sample plants in each treatment and observed mean value used for statistical analysis. The IGSJT-10-2 showed highest mean performance for total rhizome yield 30.32 t.ha -1 followed by genotype IGSJT-10-1 (21.52 t.ha -1 ) and IGJT-10-1 (21.18 t.ha -1 ). The highest mean performance for starch recovery IGSJT-10-2 showed 16.57 per cent followed by genotype IGBT-10-4 starch recovery 15.80 per cent and IGBLT-10-1 starch recovery 15.52 per cent. Considerable genetic variation has been exhibited by genotypes involved in present investigation. The most variable characters are weight of secondary rhizome per plant, weight of mother rhizome per plant, total rhizome yield t/ha, number of mother rhizome per plant, weight of primary finger rhizome per plant and number of leaves per plant. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance was observed for weight of secondary finger rhizome per plant, weight of mother rhizome per plant, number of leaves per plant, total rhizome yield t/ha number of secondary finger rhizome per plant, weight of primary finger rhizome per plant estimated and that can be improved by direct selection. Key words : Tikhur (Curcuma angustifolia Roxb.), starch recovery, rhizome yield, genetic variability, heritability, genetic advance. Plant Archives Vol. 14 No. 2, 2014 pp. 655-663 ISSN 0972-5210 *Author for correspondence : E-mail : deo1975ram@gmail.com Introduction Tikhur (Curcuma angustifolia Roxb.) is an important annual herb of family zingibareceae. It is an important food (starch plant). Simultaneously, it is used as a medicine by tribal people of Chhattisgarh. It occurs abundantly found in Sal forest especially near the streams is a rich source of starch and has good demand by the industries as well as for human consumption especially in festivals in recent fast. It is found that over exploitation of the species that resulted in bringing it in valuable category of IUCN. Thus, it has necessitated the cultivation of this species in the farmer's field. Growing demand for various pharmaceutical and food industries for a quality raw material rich in starch contents, require thorough studies for selection of best genotype and varieties, which have high starch content, thus can only be met by selection of better natural source and then attempt for breeding better variety. Farmers are grown unidentified locally available genotypes of tikhur for rhizome production and starch has been recovered by traditional method only by the most tribal people of Chhattisgarh due to unrefined extraction process, farmers get less starch recovery from tikhur rhizome. However, several other constraints which also limits the starch recovery in this crop. Tikhur rhizomes are used as appetizer reducing burning sensations and stomach pains, removal of stone from kidney, useful for ulcer patient (Sharma, 2003) and rhizome pulp is used for treatment of headache as well