Phenotypic Characterization of Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) Germplasm Collected from Jharkhand, India

The present investigation was carried out with an aim to study genetic diversity, trait correlation and path analysis among one hundred pigeonpea accessions collected from geographically diverse locations of Jharkhand state of India. These accessions were evaluated in an augmented block design for two years for nine yield attributing traits and analysis of variance, path analysis, correlation and hierarchical cluster analysis was performed on the recorded data to estimate the extent of variability among genotypes and to measure the direct and indirect contribution of different yield attributing traits on yield. Significant genetic variability was observed among the accessions for all the studied traits with high estimates of heritability and genetic advance. Highly significant and positive correlation was found between different traits and yield per plant. The hierarchical cluster analysis grouped the genotypes into 11 distinct non-overlapping clusters. It was concluded that the genotypes possess significant variability enabling them as candidate genotypes to be utilized as parents for breeding of pigeonpea varieties with desired attributes.