Pandey, R.L.Sharma, R.N.Choubey, N.K.Saxena, R.R.Tigga, Kiran2016-12-222016-12-222009142 p.http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/92149The present investigation was conducted during kharif 2008 at Instructional cum Research Farm and Laboratory of the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, College of Agriculture, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, (C.G.). The experimental material comprising 22 genotypes of cowpea was conducted in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications for estimation of genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance, correlation analysis, path coefficient analysis and genetic divergence. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the genotypes for all the characters studied except for number of branches per plant, number of pods per plant and number of clusters per plant. The highest magnitude of genotypic and phenotypic variation was observed for seed yield per plot, seed yield per plant, swelling index, swelling capacity, plant population per plot, days to maturity, plant height, seed volume, hydration index, days to 50% flowering, hydration capacity and 100 seed weight. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance was observed for days to maturity, seed volume, swelling capacity, swelling index and seed yield per plot indicating that heritability is due to additive gene action and selection based on these characters may be effective. Correlation coefficient analysis revealed that seed volume, hydration capacity and swelling capacity had significant positive association with 100 seed weight. Hence, improvement of 100 seed weight per plant can be achieved by improving these characters. Path coefficient analysis revealed that seed volume and swelling capacity had positive direct and significant correlation with 100 seed weight while number of pods per plant had negative direct effect and also negative significant correlation with 100 seed weight. Therefore, emphasis should be given to seed volume and swelling capacity for the genetic improvement of 100 seed weight. Divergence analysis revealed that considerable amount of genetic divergence was present in the material under study. Based on Mahalanobis‟s D2 statistic, genotypes grouped into four non-overlapping clusters showed genetic diversity rather geographical diversity. Intercrossing of genotypes from different clusters showing superior mean performance may help in obtaining higher yields. Genotypes belonging to cluster I may produce better heterosis and segregants with the genotypes of cluster III and IV. The present investigation revealed that selection for the characters such as seed yield per plant, biological yield, number of capsules per plant, days to maturity and number of primary branches per plant is important to evolve high yielding genotypes of cowpea. Development of dual type cowpea can also be taken up as one of the breeding objective.enThesis