Genetic studies for quantitative traits in pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan)

Pigeonpea is one of the most important pulse crops grown in many states of India and plays an important role in sustainable food and nutritional security. Increased pigeonpea production is possible with high yielding varieties suitable for different agro-climatic conditions, that can be achieved by assessing the variability of the existing germplasm. Based on this, a study was carried out during kharif 2018 at Department of Pulses, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India to evaluate the genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance of eleven characters in fifteen genotypes including checks (Gulyal Red, CO 6, CO 8, Maruti, BWR 133, BSMR 846, ICPL 10967, ICPL 11023, IC 525403, IC 525411, IC 525413, IC 525424, IC 525456, IC 525521, IC 525527). Analysis of variance revealed that significant difference among genotypes for all the eleven characters studied the magnitude of PCV and GCV was moderate to high for racemes per plant, cluster per plant, pods per cluster, total number of pods and single plant weight. High heritability was recorded for primary branches, pod length, racemes per plant, cluster per plant, number of pods per plant, 100 seed weight, plant height and single plant weight. High heritability combined with high genetic advance was recorded for number of pods per plant, clusters per plant and plant height indicating that these characters are controlled by additive gene effect and phenotypic selection of these characters would be effective for further breeding purpose.