Study of Genetic Variability and Character Association for Yield and Components Traits in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Germplasm in Bundelkhand Region

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is a very important crop among the grain legume crops in India. It is grown in north India in the winter season on marginal and semi-marginal land as a commonly non-irrigated crop. Bundelkhand, a region in Uttar Pradesh, India, is notorious for its harsh climate, characterized by extreme heat and drought stress. Temperature fluctuate with highs reaching 50°C in summer and lows of 5°C in winter, exert substantial adverse effects on chickpea cultivation, impairing crop growth and yield and demand to have genetic resources used in breeding programs. The experiment aimed to characterize and evaluate 204 chickpea lines, including commercial varieties, to understand the magnitude of variability and the association of various yield parameters on the yield of chickpea based on 12 agro-morphological characters under Bundelkhand region. ANOVA shows that significant variation exists for most of the characteristics of chickpeas. Higher GCV and PCV were observed for plant population (GCV 24.92, PCV 31.22) followed by the number of secondary branches (GCV 21.61, PCV 26.55), number of pods per plant (GCV 12.92, PCV 18.47), seed yield per plant (GCV 11.39, PCV 21.98) and biological yield per plant (GCV 11.68, PCV 20.37), revealing that the environment plays a positive role in the expression of these characters. High heritability was found by 100 seed weight (96.41) followed by seed yield per plant (84.11) and number of pods per plant (66.26) and a high degree of genetic advance was found in the number of pods per plant (26.24) followed by biological and seed yield per plant (15.25 and 6.92). High heritability coupled with high genetic advance was found in seed yield per plant, followed by biological yield per plant, indicating selection could be rewarding in proper breeding programs. Correlation and path studies showed that biological yield per plant (r-0.91), number of pods per plant (r- 0.680), number of secondary branches per plant (r-0.46), number of seeds per pod (r-0.32) and 100 seed weight (0.29) turned out to be the main components for seed yield per plant in chickpea, stipulating that these characters could be desirable selection parameter.