Vol. 11, Special Issue 7 (2022)

Methodology: The study carried out with 28 genetically diverse pea genotypes (7 parents and 21 F₁ crosses, developed in half diallel fashion) with recommended agro-practices and evaluation were done under Randomized Block Design (RBD). The data observed were analyzed by SPAR.2.0 software.

Results: It was found that parentage and crosses have genetic variability (among parentage and F₁s) for all the agro-morphological traits. The extent of lowest and highest PCV and GCV was recorded for days to maturity and seed yield per plant respectively. Broad –sense heritability magnitude ranged from 28.17% for number of seeds/pod to 76.31% for Plant height. Along with high genetic advance (>20%) highest heritability (>60%) coupled and was assessed for number seeds/pod (76.31% to 26.35%). The No. of pod per plant (r = 0.685 and 0.670, respectively at P≤0.01) has substantial genotypic and phenotypic correlation with seed yield/plant followed by pod length (0.639), number of nodes to first flowering (0.576) etc. Using molecular data measured genetic coefficients revealed varying degree of genetic relatedness among the 7 parental lines of field pea and 0.12 to 0.89 range Jaccard’s similarity coefficient has been reported. On the basis of 18 SSR markers study 7 parental lines of field pea can be differentiated into two major groups, where with highest Jaccard’s similarity coefficient (0.89) Prakash consisted in group 1.

Interpretation: Genetic variability plays essential role in selection of genotypes with desired good trait of interest. Presence of high heritability helps in enhancing the selection efficiency and genetic gain in field pea crop.