CHARACTER ASSOCIATION AND GENETIC DIVERSITY OF CHICKPEA (fleer arietinum L.)

Abstract

An experiment was undertaken to study character association and genetic diversity for yield and yield contributing characters of fifty chickpea genotypes in RCI3D with three replications. The study was carried out at the experimental farm of Sher-e-Rangla Agricultural (Jnivcrsity. Dhaka. during December. 2011 to March. 2012. The results indicated that different chickpea genotypes differed significantly regarding all the characters under studied. Minimum difibrenees of genotypic and phenotypic variances and coefficient of variation as well as high heritability coupled with high genetic advance and genetic advance in percentage of mean were observed for all the traits of different chickpea genotypes indicated additive gene effects of these traits. Number of secondary branches per plant, number of pods per plant and 100 seed weight showed high degree of significant positive correlation with seed yield per plant and high positive direct efl'ect indicated that these characters had the major contribution towards the grain yield per plant. Selection could be made based on three traits for the improvement of yield of chickpea. Cluster III comprised maximum number of genotypes (16) followed by cluster 1(12), cluster 11(8), cluster V (8) and cluster TV (6). The highest genotypic distance was observed between the genotypes BI) 6414 and RD 5693 (7.10). The inter cluster distance was highest between cluster I and IV (32.93). Among the characters number of pods per plant (0.31) and seed yield per plant (0.32) were major characters that contribute mostly towards genetic divergence.