Genetic variability studies in germplasm accession of pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.)

Abstract

Sixty genotypes of pigeonpea accession were evaluated for genetic variability, heretability and genetic advance. Observation were recorded on days to flower initiation, days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, number of primary branches per plant, number of secondary branches per plant, plant height, number of pods per plant, number of pod clusters per plant, number of pods per cluster, pod length, number of seeds per pod, 100 seed weight and seed yield per plant. Analysis of variance revealed that the mean sum of squares due to genotypes were highly significant for all the characters indicating existence of sufficient variability among the genotypes. Among the different yield attributing traits, number of pods per cluster had the highest magnitude of GCV and PCV. The high magnitude of GCV and PCV was observed for number of pods per cluster followed by secondary branches per plant number of pod clusters per plant, number of pods per plant, seed yield per plant which is an indicative of the genetic variability exists in the pigeonpea germplasm accessions. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance as percentage of mean was found for number of pods per cluster, secondary branches per plant, number of pod clusters per plant, number of pods per plant, seed yield per plant, which indicated that the predominance of additive gene action in the expression of these characters.