Genetic Divergence and Heritability Studies for Yield and Yield Attributes in Various Accessions of Desi Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Genetic variability and heritability studies were carried out during 2017-2018 for earliness, phonological and yield related parameters in desi Cicer arietinum L. genotypes at Agriculture Research Institute, D. I. Khan, Pakistan. Sixteen chickpea genotypes including 14 accessions along with 2 check varieties (Bhakkar- 2011 and Bittle-2016) were grown and evaluated according to (RCB) design in three blocks. High variation were noted in the chickpea germplasms in days to germination, days to 50% flowering, seeds per pod, 1st branches plant^-1, 2ndry branches plant^-1, plant height, hundred grain weight and grain yield plant^-1. Overall, chickpea accessions CH30/12, CH10/12, CH44/12, CH14/12, and CH11/12 performed well, and recorded with maximum values for grains pod^-1, hundred seed weight along with other contributing parameters. Values for phenotypic found greater than gcv which depicted primary presence of environment in the performance of chickpea genotypes for the said parameters. Overall, the gcv and pcv were low to moderate for majority of the parameters. Highest amount of gcv and pcv were recorded for seed yield per plant (30.48 and 32.00%) and secondary branches per plant (20.47 and 24.29%), respectively. High broad sense heritability and genetic gain values were also noted in seed yield plant^-1 and 2ndry branches plant^-1 ranging from 71 to 91% and 36.00 to 60.00%, respectively. Therefore, the above promising accessions have greater genetic variability and sufficient information in further breeding programs to introduce ideotype chickpea genotypes.