ఆగ్రోటెక్నాలజీ

నైరూప్య

Phenotypic Variability and Association (among yield components and) Yield Related Trait in desi Type Chickpea (cicer arietinum l.) in Raya Kobo District, Northern Ethiopia

Asmare Zerfu, Faris Hailu, Musa Adal

Chickpea is the most important pulse grown in Ethiopia however; its production is limited due to lack of improved varieties that is adaptable to both biotic and abiotic factor as well as to give high grain yield. Twelve varieties of chickpea collected from Sirinka Agriculture Research Center (SARC) were evaluated at SARC Kobo branch using irrigation with the objectives evaluating the variability of chickpea varieties for grain yield and yield related traits, determination of association among yield components and identify traits that can be used mainly to explain variation among desi chickpea varieties. The study was laid out in randomized complete block design with three replications. Analyses of variance, the mean square due to accession were highly significant for all of the characters studied such as plant height, biological yield and grain yield. The range for PCV was 3.96% days to maturity to 30.1% for biological yield. As to the GCV, it ranged from 1.24% for days of maturity to 28.153% for biological yield. Heritability estimates vary as small value recorded for days to maturity (9.74%) and high value recorded for hundred seed weight per plant (96.52%). Hundred seed weight, biological yield, plant height, grain yield and harvest index have high heritability and high expected genetic advance. Most of the characters studied show high heritability estimate indicating the possibility of improving these traits through selection. Grain yield showed positive and highly significant association with biological yield, number of pod, number of primary branch, hundred seed weight, and days to maturity. The dendrogram obtained from the hierarchical cluster analysis grouped the original 12 accessions into four clusters and two solitary accessions. The principal component analysis revealed that four principal components PC1 to PC4 with eigen values greater than one accounted for 98.2% of the total variation. The present study indicates the presence of high heritability with high values of genetic advance which showed the possibility of selection to improve yield and yield related traits in desi type chickpea genotypes.