Genetic variability study for yield and its components in black gram [Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper]

Abstract

Black gram is an important Indian pulse crop. The analysis of variance revealed significant differences between genotypes indicating presence of sufficient amount of variability in all the thirteen studied characters. The studied materials revealed wide range of variation by virtue of exhibiting highly significant genotypic differences for all the thirteen traits viz., days to 50 % flowering, plant height, branches per plant, clusters per plant, pods per plant, seeds per pod, pod length, 100-seed weight, seed yield per plant, days to maturity, straw yield, harvest index, and protein (%). The disease incidence (%) was calculated for YMV incidence. This suggests that there is ample scope to develop seed yielding genotypes with better processing traits. Heritability estimates along with genetic advance are more useful than heritability alone in predicting the resultant effect on selecting best individuals. In present investigation, high heritability with high genetic advance as per cent of mean was recorded for branches per plant, clusters per plant, plant height, seed yield per plant, harvest index and straw yield which indicates the predominance of additive gene action along with lesser influence of environment, thus infers high scope of further improvement through selection for these traits.