Genotypic variation of adaptive and yield component traits of introduced grain oats (Avena sativa L.) grown in Bangladesh

Oat (Avena sativa L.) is considered a nutritious cereal. Its demand has surged across the globe steadily for half a decade, including in Bangladesh. Because there is no local variety, the current supply in Bangladesh solely relies on imports. This study aimed to introduce grain oats from the United States of America (U.S.A.) to Bangladesh and determine the extent of their adaptability and yield in this new environment. One hundred oat accessions were introduced in collaboration between North South University, Bangladesh and the University of Florida, U.S.A. They were evaluated in field conditions from November 2019 to April 2020 in the Dinajpur district, Bangladesh in two replicated measurements of 13 morphological traits with RCBD design. The broad-sense heritability ranged from 11.7% to 90.0% for the measured traits. The yield-related trait, spikelet numbers, was positively correlated with height (0.30), dry weight (0.46), and harvest index (0.42) but negatively correlated with heading (-0.05), flowering date (-0.05), and tiller numbers (-0.16). Growth habit was negatively correlated with height (-0.07) and dry weight (-0.25). Principal components 1 and 2 explained 43.01% of the variability and were strongly influenced by heading and flowering date. Cluster analysis assigned the genotypes into six main clusters, and the analysis showed that spikelet numbers, growth habit, height, harvest index, and heading date were key yield-contributing and adaptive traits. Identifying traits highly correlated with oat yield could be useful for developing new varieties adapted to Bangladesh environments. This study is a pioneer; it paved the way to breed new high-yielding grain oat varieties for Bangladesh