Sunil Dutt Tyagi and Mudasir Hafiz Khan
An experiment was carried out during winter (rabi) season of 2007 and 2008 to assess the correlation, path coefficient and genetic diversity in 30 morphological diverse accessions of lentil (Lens culinaris Medik) under rainfed conditions. Days to 50% flowering, biological yield/plant, seed yield/plant and 100-seed weight showed significant differences and wide variations during both years. Low differences between phenotypic coefficient of variability and genotypic coefficient of variability were observed for all the descriptors during both years. Pods/plant, days to 50% flowering, biological yield/plant, seed yield/plant and 100-seed weight in both the years showed high heritability coupled with high genetic advance (per cent of mean) signifying the influence of additive gene effects. The characters viz., biological yield/plant and number of primary branches/plant showed positive and significant correlations with seed yield/plant and exerted positive and high direct effects on seed yield/plant for both years. D2 analysis groped accessions into three clusters having 16, 10 and 4 accessions. The highest genetic diversity was observed between cluster I and III. Hence, accessions belonging to cluster I and III can be used as parents for hybridization programme for the development of high yielding lentil genotypes under rainfed conditions.
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