Character Associations in Cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp]
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Date
2016
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MPUAT, Udaipur
Abstract
The present investigation entitled “Character Associations in Cowpea [Vigna
unguiculata (L.) Walp]” was carried with 60 genotypes (including three checks
namely RC-19, RC-101 and RCV-7) during Kharif- 2015 at the Research Farm of
Plant Breeding and Genetics, Rajasthan college of Agriculture, MPUAT Udaipur. The
genotypes were planted in a randomized block design with three replications.
The observations were recorded for 16 characters viz, Days to 50% flowering,
Number of flowers per plant, Number of flowers per cluster, Days to maturity, Plant
height, Number of primary branches per plant, Number of pods per plant, Number of
clusters per plant, Number of pods per cluster, Pod length, Number of seeds per pod,
Test weight, Seed yield per plant, Biological yield per plant, Harvest index and Seed
protein content on five randomly selected plants from each genotypes in all the
replications while days to 50% flowering and days to maturity which were recorded
on plot basis and average values was subjected to analysis of variance, estimation of
variability parameters, correlation and path coefficient.
The estimates of genotypic parameters revealed that differences between the
estimates of GCV and PCV were found least for most of the characters. Higher
estimates of GCV were observed for seed yield per plant, biological yield per plant
and plant height. Maximum heritability was found for plant height followed by
biological yield per plant, test weight and seed protein content. While, maximum
genetic gain was observed for plant height, biological yield per plant, seed yield per
plant and number of primary branches per plant. Association estimates revealed that seed yield per plant was highly significant
and positively correlated at both genotypic and phenotypic levels with biological yield
per plant, number of pods per plant, test weight, number of seeds per pod and plant
height.
Present experimental findings revealed that characters plant height, biological
yield per plant, seed yield per plant, test weight and number of primary branches per
plant showed high GCV, heritability and genetic gain. Hence, selection can be made
for improvement of these characters.
Path coefficient analysis revealed maximum direct effect by biological yield
per plant (0.995) followed by harvest index (0.672). While, other characters viz,
number of pods per cluster (0.620) followed by biological yield per plant (0.320) and
harvest index (0.077) exhibited high indirect effects on seed yield per plant through
number of flowers per plant.
The present investigation revealed that the test genotypes CPD-197, GC-3,
CPD-201, CPD-204, CPD-200, FS-68, CPD-207, CPD-209, CPD-211, CPD-212,
CPD-169 were found to combine many of desirable yield component traits. Therefore,
these genotypes seem to be promising and may be used in future breeding programme
of cowpea. It is concluded from the genetic parameters of variation, correlation and
path coefficient analysis study that seed yield in cowpea can be improved by focusing
on character biological yield per plant, harvest index, number of pods per plant,
number of seeds per pod and plant height.
Description
Character Associations in Cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp]
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Citation
Sharma and Sharma, 2016