CHARACTER ASSOCIATION AND PATH ANALYSIS STUDY OF SOYBEAN GERMPLASM [GLYCINE MAX (L.) (MERRILL)]P. Dutta and P.K. GoswamiAbstract An understanding of Soybean germplasm with check varieties can help in identifying germplasm in better adoption. The present investigation was carried out to access the genetic variation and morpho-metric characterization of Soybean germplasm. A set of 37 germplasm along with 3 checks were evaluated using randomized complete block design with 3 replications during kharif 2018 and 2019 in the experimental area of Instructional cum Research Farm, College of Agriculture, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, Assam. The performance of the genotypes was evaluated on the basis of ten characters. Selection was done for all characters which show direct association with yield. Significant difference was observed for most of the characters in all the genotypes. At genotypic level, seed yield/plant had significant and positive correlation with number of seed/pods, pod length, number of branches, pod/ plant, 100 Seed weight. At phenotypic level, seed yield/plant had significant and positive correlation with Number of seed/pods, pod length, pod/plant, number of branches, 100 seed weight, days to 50% flowering, days to maturity. Path analysis showed that the traits viz., number of seed per pod and 100 seed weight were the most directly contributing traits to seed yield per plant and as such could be used as selection criteria in the present soybean breeding programme. |