Prospective resources for flax selection from the national gene fund of plants of Uzbekistan

Abstract

Flax is one of the oldest oil crops in Central Asia and was cultivated for edible oil 1000 years ago. In 2023, flax was grown on an area of 13,000 ha in the arid regions of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and the average yield was 0.7-0.8 t/ha. The main reason for the low productivity is the lack of high-yielding varieties of flax suitable for the climatic conditions of Uzbekistan. In the climatic conditions of Uzbekistan, 100 flax varieties from the National Gene Bank were studied for morphobiological and economically valuable traits, belonging to more than 30 countries of the world. As a result of the research, 20 flax samples were selected based on the length of the main stem, 11 samples based on resistance to lodging, 10 samples based on early ripening, 17 samples based on the productivity of one plant, and 7 samples based on a set of traits. These samples will subsequently be involved in the breeding process to create new early-ripening, productive varieties with a high oil content in the seeds.