Evaluation of genetic diversity in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) for yield and yield components by multivariate technique

The present investigation was carried out with 80 diverse genotypes of chickpea at Crop Research Centre of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut, U.P. Observations were recorded on various characters viz. days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, plant height, primary branches per plant, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, 100-seed weight, biological yield per plant, harvest index, seed yield per plant. Analysis of variance revealed substantial amount of variability for all ten characters. It indicates the wide spectrum of variability among the genotypes. Mahalanobis (D2) static revealed considerable genetic diversity among the genotypes. Genotypes were grouped into eight clusters. Cluster VIII have maximum 20 genotypes. The maximum intra cluster distance exhibited for cluster III and lowest intra cluster distance was recorded for cluster II. The maximum intra cluster distance was because of wide genetic diversity among its genotypes. The chance of developing good segregates by crossing the genotypes of the same cluster showing low value for intra cluster distance are very low. The maximum inter cluster distance was revealed between cluster III and V. The clearly indicates that the genotypes included in this cluster are having broad spectrum of genetic diversity and could very well be used in hybridization programme of chickpea for improving seed yield. The minimum inter cluster distance was revealed between clusters I and VII. The cluster VI showed best performance for high mean values for primary branches per plant, pods per plant, seed yield per plant biological yield per plant harvest index and seed yield per plant. The cluster V showed best performance for early flowering, early maturity and number of seeds per pod. The cluster IV and VII were found to exhibit high cluster mean values for 1000 seed weight and plant height respectively.