The current investigation was aimed to study the genetic association of seed yield and its components in 81 mid-altitude sesame accessions based on morphological traits. The genotypes were evaluated in 9 x 9 simple lattice design at Melkassa Agricultural Research Center, Ethiopia, during the 2014 cropping season. The study mainly focused on determining the nature and extent of phenotypic and genotypic correlation and path coefficient analysis among 13 quantitative traits. Analysis of variance revealed significant difference among genotypes for all traits studied. Mean performance of genotypes revealed that the highest mean seed yield/plant (8.6g) recorded for Oromia-22 and the lowest mean seed yield/plant (2.6g) for Oromia-9; with overall mean of 5.33g/plant. Whereas, the highest mean oil content (52.15%) noted for Oromia-13 and the lowest (43.35%) mean oil content was recorded for Am-SW-7 genotypes, with overall mean of 47.1%. Characters viz., number of capsules, biomass yield, harvest index and 1000 seed weight showed highly significant and high positive correlation with seed yield. Plant height and number of seeds/capsule also showed highly significant but moderately positive significant association with seed yield; indicating that these traits are reliable yield components and seed yield can be improved through direct selection of these traits. Maximum positive direct effect on seed yield was exerted by number of capsules, biomass yield, days to maturity and harvest index; showing that these traits can be used for selection to improve the primary trait. Hence, the use of these traits in sesame improvement program would increase seed yield.

Keywords: Correlation coefficient, Mid-altitude, Quantitative traits, Path Coefficient Analysis