Breeding for high oil in safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.)

Abstract

Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f sp. Carthami Klisiewicz and Houston is a major disease in safflower. Sources of resistance to Fusarium wilt among the vast collections of safflower germplasm were very few. The multiple crossings effected between susceptible high yielding lines and the wilt resistant breeding lines resulted into identification of several wilt resistant lines. Among them, six lines found to be stable for wilt resistance (<20% wilt incidence) over years of screening in wilt sick plot. These lines have exhibited 73-105% superiority in seed yield and 88-139% superiority in oil yield over the high yielding national check variety, A1 when tested in the research farm of the Directorate of Oilseeds Research, Hyderabad. One of these entries viz., DSI-101 when tested for yield performance at 19 locations in Initial Varietal Trial (IVT) of AICRP (Safflower), recorded 18.3% higher seed yield and 26% higher oil yield over the highest yielding national check variety, A1 under irrigated conditions and 2.7% higher oil yield over A1 and near on par with A1 with respect to seed yield under rainfed conditions. It also exhibited resistance to Fusarium wilt in multilocation wilt sick plots in IVT.