Determination of Green Pod Yield Components in French Bean (Phaseolus vulgarisL.) through Correlation and Path Coefficient Analyses

Twenty genotypes including few released cultivars of French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) were evaluated to determine genetic variability, heritability, genetic advance as per cent of mean, correlations among yield and economically important traits and direct and indirect effects of these traits on overall yield. Field trial was conducted during Rabi 2011–12. A high phenotypic (34.20) and genotypic (34.03) coefficients of variations were recorded for number of pod per plant followed by green pod yield, pod weight and pedicel length. Phenotypic coefficients were higher than their respective genotypic correlations in most of the cases indicating that genotypic correlations are stronger, reliable and free from environmental effects. A significant positive correlation between green pod yield and economic traits like number of pods per plant, pod length, individual pod weight and number of seed per pod was estimated which indicates that improvement in these traits could lead to increase in pod yield. Path analysis revealed that number of pods per plant had maximum direct effects on green pod yield followed by pod weight, pod thickness and seed length thus, in improvement programmes, emphasis should be given on these traits to improve green pod yield. The traits like plant height, number of pods per plant, pod length and individual pod weight are important dependable yield contributing traits and need due weight age while formulating selection strategies for genetic improvement of French bean.