Vol. 10, Issue 12 (2021)

Author(s):
Payal Pramanik, Hrudananda Mishra and Kalyan Kumar Mohanty

Abstract:
The present experiment on genetic variability and correlation in bush type cowpea was carried out with 20 locally collected genotypes with the objective to improve the yield through selection. The results revealed that wide variability was found for different traits in bush type cowpea. Invariably, higher values were observed for phenotypic coefficient of variation with respect to corresponding genotypic coefficient of variation indicating the impact of environmental factors towards trait expression. High estimates of GCV, heritability (broad sense) and genetic advance as percentage of mean together at a glance were observed for the characters like plant height, number of pods per plant, pod weight and edible pod yield per plant suggesting additive gene action for expression of these characters. Correlation studies among the various traits indicated that there is a strong inherent association between yield per plant with characters like branches per plant, number of pods per plant, pod length, pod girth, number of seeds per pod and 100 seed weight. Further, plant height, number of branches per plant, number of pods per plant, pod length, number of seeds per pod, pod weight, 100 seed weight and pod girth showing significant positive association both at genotypic and phenotypic levels suggested that, these are important correlated characters contributing towards fruit yield of cowpea and simultaneous improvement in these characters will be helpful in bush type cowpea improvement programme.