Variability and multivariate analysis in rice bean (Vigna umbellata (Thumb) Ohwi and Ohashi)

Abstract

A field trial of 54 diverse genotypes of rice bean (Vigna umbellata (Thumb) Ohwi and Ohashi) was conducted to assess the magnitude of genetic variability, heritability, genetic advance and genetic diversity. The analysis of variance indicated the prevalence of sufficient genetic variation among the genotypes for all the ten traits. High heritability coupled with high phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) and high genetic advance as per cent of mean (GA%) were observed for days to 50% flowering, plant height at maturity, seed yield per plant and seed yield per hectare which indicated that response to selection would be very high for these yield components. Mahalanobis' D2 analysis resulted 10 diverse clusters. Two traits viz„ 1000 seed weight, and days to maturity were contributed more than 83 per cent towards total genetic divergence.