Morphology and production character of local eggplant based on principal component analysis

Environmental changes, including loss of biodiversity, threaten agricultural production and quality. The present research investigated morphology and production character in ten accessions of local eggplant. The research was carried out by planting ten plants from each accession in a row, the distance among plants and among beds were 50 cm respectively. The experiment was conducted from March to August 2018 at Agrotechnopark Jatikerto, Malang, East Java. Principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that four components (PC1 to PC4) accounted for about 90% of the total variation among traits in eggplant accession. Out of total principal components PC1, PC2, PC3 with values of 41.6%, 24.4%, and 13.5% respectively contributed greatly to the total variation. The first principal component had the highest positive loading for five characters out of 10 viz. leaf width, leaf length, the length of petiole, stem diameter and plant height which contributed greatly to the diversity. Limao Eggplant and Blitar local eggplant which has high yield potential. The result of this study could be exploited in the planning and execution of future breeding programme in local eggplant.