Relationship between the yield contributing characters in cowpea for grain purpose [vigna unguiculata (L). Walp]

The experiment was conducted using fourteen genotypes of cowpea collected from different states in India to study the nature ofgenotypic association between the eight yield contributing characters and direct and indirect effects of the different characters onyield. The study revealed that the days to maturity, number of branches per plant and number of pods per plant showed positivesignificant correlation with seed yield. Path coefficient analysis exhibited days to fifty per cent flowering, plant height, pods perplant showed positive direct effect on yield except days to maturity, branches per plant, seeds per pod and hundred seed weightwhich showed negative direct effects. The characters plant stand at harvest and pods per plant exhibited moderate direct effects onyield. The implications of the results revealed that selection can be done for days to maturity, number of branches per plant andnumber of pods per plant for improving the grain yield in cowpea.