Heterosis and Heritability Estimates of Some Yield Traits in Eight Hybrids of Cocoa (Theobroma cacao)

The quest to understand the inheritance pattern of some traits in generated progenies of some parental clones of cocoa lead to this study. Hybridization was carried out to generate progenies from eleven parental clones. The hybrids were established in a randomized complete block design of six replications in a hybrid evaluation trial plot at the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN), Ibadan in 1999. Data were collected on some yield parameters from the parents and the hybrids. Heritability, component of genetic variation and heterosis were estimated for the traits. The collected data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA). There were significant variation (P<0.05) among the nineteen genotypes for all the studied traits except the placental weight and bean weight per pod respectively. Among the parents, Pound 7 had the highest pod weight. However, P7xPA150 had the highest number of bean per pod. Some of the hybrids exhibited significant heterosis for most of the yield traits. Their inclusion in commercial cocoa production can lead to the improvement of the national cocoa productivity.