Genetic diversity in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

An experiment entitled, “Genetic Diversity in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)” was carried out during rabi, 2012 at Botany Research Farm, College of Agriculture, Pune-05. The present investigation was carried out with the objectives to know the extent of variability for 11 characters in 40 chickpea genotypes, to estimate broad sense heritability and genetic advance, to study the association among different characters and find out direct and indirect effects of various characters on seed yield and to measure the genetic divergence between different genotypes and group them into suitable clusters. The study involved 40 genotypes of chickpea, laid in randomized block design with three replications during rabi 2012. Observations were recorded on 11 characters viz., days to 50 per cent flowering, days to maturity, plant height (cm), primary branches per plant, secondary branches per plant, seeds per pod, pods per plant, pod to husk ratio, 100 seed weight (g), protein content (%) and seed yield per plant (g). Appreciable amount of variability among the genotypes for all the characters were observed. Genotypic as well as phenotypic coefficient of variation was highest for seed yield per plant (38.55 and 38.58, respectively), followed by number of pods per plant, secondary branches per plant. Genotypic coefficient for other characters ranged from 7.95 (days to maturity) to 33.60 (100 seed weight). Heritability in broad sense was very high for all the traits and ranged between 61.10% (seeds per pod) and 99.90% (pods per plant and protein content). Genetic advance was highest for number of pods per plant (99.05), followed by secondary branches per plant (20.87). Correlation study revealed that, seed yield per plant showed highly significant positive relationship with pods per plant (0.740) followed by number of seeds per pod (0.252). The character, days to 50 per cent flowering (-0.388) exhibited significantly negative correlation with the seed yield per plant. Days to maturity, plant height, secondary branches per plant, pod to husk ratio and protein content also exhibited non-significantly positive correlation with the seed yield per plant (0.057, 0.116, 0.007, 0.087 and 0.106 respectively). The trait primary branches per plant (-0.061) and 100 seed weight (-0.032) exhibited non-significant negative correlation with seed yield. Path analysis revealed that number of pods per plant was the most important component in determining the seed yield, thus can be considered as reliable yield indicator in chickpea. The character plant height, number of secondary branches per plant and 100 seed weight contributed indirectly towards seed yield.