CHARACTER ASSOCIATION AND GENETIC DIVERSITY ANALYSIS IN BLACKGRAM (Vigna mungo L.)

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted with 29 genotypes of blackgram (Vigna mungo L.) at the experimental field of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka to study the character association and genetic diversity during August to November 2019. The genotypes were found significantly different among them for all the characters studied. Comparatively phenotypic variances were higher than the genotypic variances for all the characters examined. Plant height, number of branches per plant, days to first flowering, days to 50% flowering, days to 80% maturity, number of pods per plant, 100 seed weight and yield per plant showed high broad base heritability. The significant positive correlation with seed yield per plant was found in number of branches per plant (G = 0.519**, P = 0.342**), pod length (G = 0.732**, P = 0.367**), number of pods per plant (G = 0.758**, P = 0.709**), number of seeds per pod (G = 0.691**, P = 0.354**) and 100 seed weight (G = 0.240*, P = 0.223*). Path co-efficient analysis revealed that plant height, number of branches per plant, days to 50% flowering, days to 80% maturity, pod length, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod and 100 seed weight had the positive direct effect on yield per plant whereas, days to first flowering had the negative direct effected. The genotypes were grouped into five clusters. The highest inter-cluster distance was observed between clusters I and V (60.988) and the maximum intra-cluster distance was found in cluster IV (0.256). Considering group distance diversity pattern and other agronomic performance, the lines G16 (BD-6861), G27 (BARI-4) and G28 (BARI-1) could be considered as suitable genotypes for fruitful hybridization in future.