SHANTHALA, J.KONREDDY, SATHISH2020-09-042020-09-042019-08-08Th-12317https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810150804Horse gram is an important unexploited annual grain legume crop tolerant to drought and hence suitable for marginal lands. With this background 230 horse gram germplasm accessions were evaluated for variability analysis, qualitative traits and response to bruchids in two different years (2017rabi and 2018rabi ) at k-block University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bengaluru. Genetic variability studies revealed high genotypic co-efficient of variability, phenotypic co-efficient of variability, heritability for secondary branches plant-1, clusters plant-1 and pods plant-1. These 230 germplasm lines were grouped into five clusters and cluster III was the largest group comprising of 88 genotypes. Out of nine traits studied, clusters plant-1 has contributed highest towards the genetic divergence followed by pod yield plant-1 and seed yield plant-1. The quantitative trait mean differences and trait variance between clusters were significant for all nine traits. The genotypes IC 139460, IC 94599, NS-04-11, RJR-94, IC 426569 and IC 106915 have exhibited high values for all the quantitative traits studied. Significant morphological variations were observed among the genotypes for qualitative traits such as flower colour, seed colour, pod shape, growth pattern, maturity types, seed colour and stem colour. Pulse beetle (Collosobru chuschinensis) affects the seeds by causing a loss up to 55-60 % in seed weight and 45.5-66.3 % loss in seed protein content. 50 horse gram germplasm accessions were evaluated for response to bruchids. Accessions IC 108076, SS-357, RJR-86 were identified as resistant against Collosobruchus chinensis with susceptibility index of 1.95, 2.34 and 2.36 respectively.enThesis