Assessment of Genetic Variability and Selection Parameters in Diverse Garden Pea (Pisum sativum L. var. hortense) Genotypes

Abstract

Genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance are essential criteria for identifying useful parents and selection traits in crop improvement programmes. The present investigation assessed genetic variability and selection parameters in 26 garden pea (Pisum sativum L. var. hortense) genotypes, comprising 25 test genotypes and the check variety Kashi Nandini. The experiment was conducted during the Rabi season of 2024-2025 at the Main Experimental Station, Department of Vegetable Science, Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology. The genotypes were evaluated in a randomised block design with three replications for 14 yield and quality traits, namely days to 50% flowering, plant height, number of primary branches per plant, pod length, number of pods per plant, average pod weight, number of seeds per pod, 100-seed weight, total soluble solids, reducing sugar, non-reducing sugar, total sugar, pod yield per plant and total pod yield. Analysis of variance indicated highly significant treatment differences for all traits, confirming appreciable variability among the genotypes. The phenotypic coefficient of variation was higher than the corresponding genotypic coefficient of variation for each trait, although the differences were generally narrow. Reducing sugar recorded the highest genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation (23.60% and 23.84%, respectively). High heritability accompanied by high genetic advance as a percentage of mean was observed for total sugar, reducing sugar, non-reducing sugar, total soluble solids, average pod weight and number of primary branches per plant, suggesting the importance of additive gene action for these traits. The genotypes NDVP-24-6, NDVP-24-14, NDVP-24-10, NDVP-24-7, NDVP-23-27, Kashi Udai, NDVP-24-11, KS-680, NDVP-23-6, NDVP-24-13 and NDVP-24-15 recorded higher pod yield than Kashi Nandini. These genotypes may provide useful material for breeding programmes focused on pod yield and selected quality attributes in garden pea.