Find in Library

Mahalanobis D2 statistics was applied to assess the divergence among the 36 hybrids and three checks of pigeonpea. The hybrids were grouped into nine clusters, where cluster I was the largest containing twenty one hybrids followed by cluster II with seven hybrids. The inter cluster distance was maximum between cluster III and VIII followed by III and VI and seed yield contributed the most (22.2) towards genetic divergence. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance as per cent of mean was noticed for seed yield, number of primary branches per plant and secondary branches per plant suggesting additive gene action controlling these traits. Seed yield showed positive correlation with all the characters studied except 100-seed weight. Genotypic path analysis revealed that the maximum direct effect on seed yield was exhibited by number of primary branches per plant, days to 50% flowering and number of pods per plant.