Efficient and Cost Effective Partial Three-Way Cross Designs for Breeding Experiments with Scarce Resources

Abstract

Three-way cross plans find a vital role in breeding experiments due to uniformity, stability and the relative simplicity of selecting and testing. Here, methodology has been developed for obtaining information matrices pertaining to general combining ability effects of full parents and half parents after eliminating specific combining ability effects. A new, efficient and cost effective series of designs involving three-way crosses for breeding experiments has been introduced and general expressions of information matrices, eigenvalues, variance factors, efficiency factor and degree of fractionation have been derived. The developed series has small degree of fractionation and high efficiency factor making them cost effective and suitable for scarce resource conditions.