Combining Ability in Cowpea { Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.}

In the present study 4 lines and 6 testers were crossed in a Line × Tester fashion. The 24 hybrids along with parents (4 + 6) and standard check (Pusa Komal) were evaluated to estimate gca and sca effects and variances for yield and yield contributing characters. The Manjarkheda Local among the lines and IC 201097 among the testers recorded significant gca effects for seed yield per plant and most of the yield attributes like plant height, pods per plants, pod length, seeds per pod and test weight. Among the hybrids, the best mean performance and significant sca effects for grain yield per plant were noticed by crosses Manjerkheda Local × Konkan Sadabahar followed by VWB 4 × IC 201097. All the crosses with significant sca effects involved parents with high × high, high × low and low × low combining ability suggesting presence of allelic as well as non-allelic interaction in the expression of these characters. These crosses need to be exploited and also one can explore the possibility of isolating transgressive segregants from the segregating generations of these crosses.