Vol. 11, Issue 6 (2022)

Author(s):
Yashi Singh Tomar, Sushma Tiwari, MK Tripathi and Ravindra Singh Solanki

Abstract:
Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is a highly nutritious legume being used for farming globally. The present investigation was conducted for analysing genetic diversity among 59 local groundnut germplasm using Mahalanobis D² statistical analysis for quantify the degree of divergence at genotypic level. Hundred pod weight is positively correlated to hundred kernel weight (r=0.656) 1% level of significance and sound mature kernels (r=0.554) 1% level of significance. Biological yield is negatively correlated to harvest index (r= -0.416) 1% level of significance and Shelling % (r= -0.281) 5% level of significance. Based on D² values 59 genotypes were grouped into different seven clusters, in which Cluster I contain maximum number of genotypes i.e. 43 followed by seven in cluster II, four in cluster IV, two genotypes are in Cluster V and Cluster III, VI and VII consist of only one genotype each. Average inter cluster values were maximum between cluster II and IV on the basis of analysis. At intra cluster level, maximum values were recorded for cluster IV followed by cluster II, cluster I and then cluster V hence these clusters appeared to be divergent and might have different geographical genetic origin hence could be gainfully utilized in groundnut improvement programme. Cluster mean of 16 morphological characters was seen most extreme in Cluster V, followed by cluster VII and then Cluster VII.