Author(s):

PN Ugale, MP Wankhade and AB Bagade

Abstract: A field experiment was conducted to estimate the genetic variability and genetic divergence in Cowpea. Thirty-One genotypes were sown in a randomized block design with two replications, during kharif 2018 at Research farm, Department of Agricultural Botany, VNMKV, Parbhani. The objective of the experiment was to identify divergent to be used as donor parents in hybridization programmes. The observations were recorded on 12 characters viz., Plant height (cm), number of primary branches per plant, days to 50% flowering, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, mean pod weight (g), pod length (cm), pod width (cm), days to first pod harvest, 100 seed weight (g), pod yield per plant (gm), pod yield per hectare (Kg). Analysis of variance and mean performance for pod yield and its components revealed significant differences among all the genotypes for all the characters there by indicating presence of variability in genotypes studied. GA as per cent of mean, GCV and PCV values were at par with one another for most of the characters which indicated that the influence of the environment on the trait was vey negligible. The genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variation were height (>20%) for the characters pod yield per hectare, plant height, number of primary branches per plant, pod length. Moderate (10-20%) for number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, 100 seed weight and low (<10%) for day to 50% flowering, mean pod weight, pod width, days to first pod harvest and pod yield per plant. The differences between PCV and GCV values were less indicating that these traits were less influenced by environment and could be improved by following phenotypic selection. High heritability was coupled with high genetic advance as per cent of mean was observed for all growth, flower attributes, earliness attributes and pod attributes except days to 50% flowering and pod width indicating that these characters were less influenced by environmental effects and these characters were governed by additive genes and selection will be rewarding for improvement of such traits.

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