Genetic Variability and Interaction of Some Quantitative Traits in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

A study was conducted during 2007–08 and 2008–09 to identify the stable genotypes of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) for grain yield under diverse agro-climatic conditions. Twenty nine genotypes were evaluated in four environments under irrigated and un-irrigated conditions for their agronomic performance. Data on 10 yield component traits (days to flowering, days to maturity, plant height, branches/plant, pods/plant, seeds/pod, 100-seed weight, biological yield, seed yield/plant and harvest index) were studied to investigate the effects of genotypes, environments and G x E interactions. Study indicated that evaluation of yield components must be taken for different environments. On partitioning of these components into liner and non-liner components, it was observed that both the components were responsible for the expression of traits. However, the liner component was found larger in magnitude than the non-liner component, suggesting that variation in the performance of different cultivars could be predicted. The genotypes Pusa 1105, BG 2050, DG 5003 DG 5008 and DG 5009 were found suitable for irrigated environments for grain yield. For moisture stress environment four genotypes –Pusa 1003, Pusa 1053, DG 5005 and DG 5055 were also found stable for grain yield. For the days to maturity, only two genotypes - Pusa 1105 and Pusa 1105 were found stable across environments. Thus, these genotypes could be used for commercial cultivation and production system. The stability measures are useful in characterizing cultivars by showing their relative performance in various environments. High phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation coupled with high heritability and genetic advance as per cent of mean were also reported for seed yield/plant, number seeds/pod and number of pods/plant indicating predominance of additive gene effects in controlling these characters.