Evaluation of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) Germplasm for Yield and Yield Attributing Traits

Abstract

The present study was conducted using different chickpea genotypes during the Rabi 2022–23 season at the Field Experimentation Centre, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Naini Agricultural Institute, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Uttar Pradesh. The experiment was laid out in a randomised block design with three replications to estimate genetic variability parameters and conduct correlation and path analyses for thirteen quantitative traits. Analysis of variance indicated highly significant differences among the genotypes at the 1% probability level for all traits. Phenotypic coefficients of variation (PCV) were higher than genotypic coefficients of variation (GCV) for all traits, indicating environmental influence. Most traits exhibited high heritability, except days to 50% flowering. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance as a percentage of the mean was observed for the number of primary branches, number of secondary branches, number of pods per plant, pod length, number of seeds per pod, biological yield per plant, seed index and harvest index. Correlation and path coefficient analyses indicated that plant height, days to maturity, number of seeds per pod, biological yield per plant, seed index and harvest index had positive direct relationships with seed yield per plant. These findings indicate that effective selection based on these traits may improve chickpea seed yield.