Studies on genetic variability, correlation and path coefficient analysis in fenugreek (Trigonella foenum graecum L.) genotypes

An experiment was carried out on fenugreek genotypes to study the genetic variability, and relationship among yield traits. Analysis of variance showed that the genotypes significantly differed in all the growth and yield parameters studied. The variability study indicated that PCV was higher than the GCV for all the traits and high genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variation was recorded for the number of primary and secondary branches per plant, the number of pods per plant and seed yield per plant. High heritability was observed for all the studied characters. Correlation studies revealed that the seed yield was significantly and positively correlated both at the genotypic and phenotypic levels to pod length and the number of pods per plant. The highest positive direct effect on seed yield per plant was observed on the number of pods per plant (0.3467) followed by the number of secondary branches per plant (0.3259), the number of seeds per pod (0.2301) and pod length (0.1468). The information on these statistical parameters would be helpful to identify the genotypes having superior yield potential which can be utilized in the improvement of fenugreek.