Genetic variability, correlation and path analysis in cowpea (vigna unguiculata L.)

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Date
2019-05-30
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Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani
Abstract
The present investigation entitled “Genetic variability, correlation and path analysis in cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.).” was undertaken to estimate variability among different cowpea for the characters studied; to study character association among pod yield and its components and to find out direct and indirect effects of different component characters on pod yield. Thirty-One genotypes were sown in a Randomized Block Design with two replication, during kharif 2018 at Research farm, Department of Agricultural Botany, V.N.M.K.V. Parbhani. 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 (mm), days to first pod harvest, 100 seed weight (g), pod yield per plant (g), 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. The genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variation were high (>20%) for the characters plant height, number of primary branches per plant and pod length. Moderate ( 10-20%) for mean pod weight, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod and low (<10%) for day to 50% flowering, pod width, days to first pod harvest. 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 pod yield per plant, pod yield per hectare and plant height 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. Correlation studies, showed that pod yield per plant had exhibited highly significant positive association with number of pods per plants, mean pod weight, pod length at both genotypic and phenotypic level this indicates their importance for indirect selection in pod yield improvement. Path analysis revealed that maximum direct effect was exhibited by characters number of pods per plant, mean pod weight and number of seeds per pod and plant height. These traits found were important yield components with positive direct effect on the improvement of pod yield per plant. Hence, selection of genotypes based on these characters would be helpful in improving pod yield potential of genotypes.
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