Study on genetic variability and character association in soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] germplasm at vindhyan zone of Uttar Pradesh

The present research was conducted to analysis of variance was significant for all characters days to 50% flowering, plant height (cm), branches per plant, clusters per plant, pods per plant, days to maturity, pod length (cm), seeds per pod, seed index (100 seed weight), seed yield per plant (g). Based on the mean performance among 20 genotypes, SL-778 (17.86) followed by PS-1447 (11.54) were found to the best genotypes for seed yield per plant indicating the presence of amount of variation for these characters. High heritability was observed for grain yield per plant (95%) and number of pods per plant (94%). Moderate values of genetic advance was observed for pods per plant (13.25) followed by days to maturity (12.69). Genotypic correlation analysis indicates that pods per plant (0.748**), seed index (0.665**), clusters per plant (0.489**), plant height (0.485**) and pod length (0.481**) showed positive significant association with grain yield per plant. Phenotypic correlation analysis indicates that pods per plant (0.723**), seed index (0.586**), plant height (0.456**), clusters per plant (0.430*) and pod length (0.348*) showed positive significant association with seed yield per plant. The results indicated of phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) were slightly higher than those of genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) for all the traits studied. Slight differences indicated minimum environmental influence and consequently greater role of factors on the expression of the traits.