Vol. 10, Issue 12 (2021)

Author(s):
Tukaram Sadgar, Dnyandeo Gadekar, Rachana Bhosale and Viju Amolic

Abstract:
A field experiment was conducted with objective to study association of cause and effect relationship of yield contributing characters on yield. This study involves forty three genotypes of wheat evaluated at Agriculture Research Station, Niphad during Rabi 2018-19 in a Randomized Block Design with two replications. Wheat genotypes were evaluated for fourteen yield and yield contributing characters to study the genetic diversity among the genotypes using Mahalnobis D² statistic. The analysis of data revealed the significant difference among the genotypes for all the characters. D² values between all possible pairs of forty three genotypes ranged from 52.41 to 408.04. Based on genetic distance (D² value), forty three genotypes were grouped into eleven clusters indicating wider genetic diversity in the germplasm collections of wheat from different geographical origin. Out of eleven clusters formed, cluster I was the largest with twenty two genotypes followed by cluster II with eight genotypes, cluster IV with five genotypes and clusters III,IV,VI, VI,VII, VIII,IX,X,XI were monogenotypic. The clustering pattern indicated the absence of relationship between genetic diversity and geographical origin of genotypes. Hence crosses should be made between these widely related genotypes located in intra and inter cluster distances, to get desirable extent of heterotic potential in order to increase the production and productivity of wheat under limited irrigation conditions.