Morpho-physiological Characterization and Yield Evaluation of Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) Germplasm

Abstract

The present study was conducted on morpho-physiological, biochemical and yield attributing characters of cowpea germplasm. The germplasm sown in randomized block design with two replications and observations were recorded on randomly selected five plants for twenty-nine characters. In case of quantitative parameters, germplasm PCP-1402, PCP-1111, PCP-1412, PCP- 1504, DC-15 and Phule Sonali showed above average performance in all the attributes including plant height, number of branches, longer pod length, seed length, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod and seed yield per hectare. Among the germplasm, Phule Sonali recorded the highest (26.50%) protein content and the germplasm PCP-1502 recorded lowest (21.50) protein content. The genotype PCP-1402 recorded highest (880 kg/ha) seed yield while Phule Pandhari recorded lowest (626 kg/ha) seed yield per hectare. On the basis of different quantitative and qualitative characters it was found that the germplasm PCP-1402, PCP-1111, PCP-1412, PCP-1504, JLCP-30, DC-15 and Phule Sonali were comparable and showed above average performance.