Raya Hisar 1706: An Indian Mustard Variety with Low Erucic Acid

Raya Hisar 1706 (RH 1706), the first zero erucic acid (erucic acid <2%) Indian mustard [Brassica juncea (L.) Czern& Coss] variety of Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana. It was released for commercial cultivation in 2023. It is black seeded with 38.0% oil content. In Indian mustard varieties erucic acid (C:22) is a major (40-50%) fatty acid. The mustard oil is considered as antinutritional due to the presence of erucic acid as main component, as it has been concern with heart health. The variety RH 1706 has been developed with the objectives to get higher seed and oil yield with low erucic acid content under irrigated conditions by crossing NOID X EC-597324 and subsequently hybridization followed by pedigree method of selection. The NOID (RC-187) is a low erucic acid germplasm being maintained at Hisar and EC-597324 is an exotic line and a good combiner parent having desired component traits like siliqua density, number of seeds/siliqua etc. Single plants of medium duration, profuse branching with low erucic acid in oil was selected using pedigree selection method in the segregating generations during generation advancement. After F6 generation, uniform advance lines having low erucic acid characteristics, more than 38% oil content, numerically at par or better for seed yield with the best checks were retained for further evaluation in replicated trials. The superior bulks were evaluated in a station trial, initial variety trial (IVT), advance variety trial-I (AVT-I), advance variety trial-II (AVT-II), and the RH 1706 was found better in seed yield than the checks viz PM-29, RH 0749 and Kranti.