This study is under the project "Varietal Improvement in Eggplant".

High quality seeds are one of the cheapest and necessary inputs in crop production. There are many establishments that can provide high quality seeds of improved crop varieties like seed companies, IPB, DA etc. However most of the farmers in our locality can not avail this because of the high cost, distance of these agencies and sometimes lack of available supply. The university can be of help in the production of needed seed of improved crop varieties available to the farmers. After developing MMSU F1 hybrids for wet season planting, next focus will be to develop pureline cultivars. The advantage of this, is its stability from one generation to the next hence farmers can still use the seeds for the next cropping seasons.

Three promising F1 hybrid eggplant that will be selected on Study 1 will be planted for the development of pureline cultivars using the pedigree method.

One fruit will be harvested from each F1 hybrid. The seed considered as the F2 will be extracted and will be sown and grown during the wet season planting following the techno guide for eggplant production. Selection will be done/under taken based on the growth habit, crop vigor, reaction to pest, fruit size, fruit settings, etc. From the F2 generation further selection, evaluation process will also be undertaken following the same procedure until F4. Preliminary yield trial will be done wherein the selected promising line will be again evaluated together with a check variety in a replicated form. Selections from the preliminary yield trial will be further evaluated for at least three locations and in 2 season per location. (General Yield Trial) Stable lines produced will then evaluated and outstanding lines will be applied for variety to the NSIC.

Pureline eggplant cultivars