Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

STUDIES ON GENETIC VARIABILITY IN CHICKPEA (CICER ARIETINUM L.)

A.R.Gaikwad, N.C.Desai, A.M. Langhi and S.D. Jadhav

Abstract

Forty different genotypes of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) obtained from the different locations were evaluated at Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari and the analysis of variance for all the characters with all the genotypes showed highly significant differences for all the characters except number of seeds per pod indicating the presence of considerable amount of genetic variability among the genotypes tested. The genotypic and phenotypic variances were higher for all the characters. The highest amount of genotypic coefficient of variation was exhibited by seed yield per plant, number of pods per plant, reaction to insect pest (heliothis), number of secondary branches per plant and 100-seed weight. High estimates of heritabilities were observed for the characters 100- seed weight, number of pods per plant, days to 50 % flowering, seed yield per plant, number of secondary branches per plant, days to maturity, plant height and protein content indicating that these characters were less influenced by environment and direct selection for these components would be effective for further improvement in yield level. The expected genetic advance expressed in percentage of mean was high for characters seed yield per plant, number of pods per plant, reaction to insect pest (heliothis), number of secondary branches per plant, 100-seed weight, while the remaining characters have shown moderate to low genetic advance as expressed as per cent of mean.