GENETIC DIVERGENCE IN CHICKPEA (CICER ARIETINUM L.)

In order to assess the divergence among the 17 genotypes, 5 each developed through mutation breeding and intra-and interspecific hybridization and two standard checks in chickpea, Mahalanobis D2 statistics was applied. These genotypes were grouped into five clusters. Clusters II, I and III had 6, 5 and 4 genotypes, respectively. On the other hand, the clusters IV and V had only one genotype each. The genotypes falling in cluster III had the maximum divergence which were closely followed by those of clusters II and I. The maximum and minimum divergence was revealed between clusters II and V and between III and V, respectively. In general, the clusters II and V exhibited high and low mean values, respectively for most of the characters. It has been suggested that for varietal improvement the hybridization among the genotypes of divergent clusters should be done rather than depending on those genotypes of the cluster having minimum divergence.