Genetic divergence and stability analysis in Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L.)

Thirty Pigeonpea genotypes studied for genetic divergence using Mahalanobis D2 statistic indicated wider genetic diversity. Considerable variability was observed for days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, plant height, number of pods per plant and seed yield due to non-linear pooled deviation. The variability was low for number of primary branches per plant and test weight. Among the 7 characters studied, seed yield contributed the most (89.49%) towards the divergence of genotypes followed by number of pods per plant, days to 50% flowering and plant height. The genotypes were grouped into 8 clusters, maximum inter cluster distance being observed between the clusters III and VII (725.69). Hence, crossing of parents from these clusters would be desirable for combining earliness, short plant height, more primary branches per plant with more pod number coupled with high seed yield. The genotypes ICPL 98008, ICPHAL 4979-2 and ICP 77303 were identified as desirable and stable for days to maturity. Stability parameters along with per se performance across three kharif seasons revealed that ICPL 20036 and ICPL 20058 were stable genotypes for seed yield and were found to be suitable for low input cultivation while, ICPL 13198 was found suitable for input rich cultivation.