Background: Assessment of genetic variability and inter-relationship between the characters can be used in the breeding programme to evolve new varieties with wide genetic diversity to maximize the yield potential in crop improvement programmes. Eighty-four field pea genotypes were evaluated in an augmented block design for thirteen quantitative traits to study variance components, heritability, genetic advance and inter-relationship between the yield and yield contributing traits. Methods: The extent of phenotypic and genotypic variation that exist in a character was calculated by the formula suggested by Burton and de Vane (1953). Heritability in broad sense and genetic advance as per cent of mean for each character was computed using the formula suggested by Hanson et al. (1956) and Johnson et al. (1955), respectively. Correlation coefficient was calculated by method suggested by Searle (1961) and path coefficient analysis done as per method of Wright (1921) and elaborated by Dewey and Lu (1959).Result: Significant differences observed among the genotypes tested for the yield characters indicated the presence of variability. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance as percent of mean was observed for the traits viz., plant height, effective pods plant-1, harvest index and seed yield plant-1 were governed by additive gene effects which will aid in effective selection. Correlation coefficient analysis revealed that seed yield plant-1 had highly significant and positive correlation with biological yield plant-1, effective pods plant-1, harvest index, seeds pods-1 and effective nodes plant-1, indicating that these traits are strongly associated with seed yield in field pea. Path coefficient analysis identified biological yield plant-1 followed by harvest index, seed pod-1, effective nodes plant-1, 100-seed weight and day to 50% flowering as highly desirable components with great direct effects on seed yield.
Assessment of genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance in soybean genotypes
