Genetic Parameters for Improving Yield in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Abstract

For plant breeding efforts looking to increase resilience, yield and stress tolerance, diversity is essential since it allows for efficient selection and hybridisation of elite genotypes. The chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is a member of the tribe Cicereae and family Fabaceae. The study aimed to examine the genetic parameters for yield improvement in Chickpea. An experiment was performed to investigate the variability and heritability of characters under 11 different parameters in 35 diverse genotypes of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) with Randomized Block Design (RBD) in three replications during Rabi Season 2023-24 at Genetic and Plant Breeding Research Farm of Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Narendra Nagar, Kumarganj, Ayodhya (U.P). In general, the phenotypic coefficient of variation PCV was higher than GCV for all the characters. The maximum PCV as well as GCV were observed by seed yield per plant. High heritability with high genetic advance was exhibited for plant height, number of pods per plant, 100 seed weight, biological yield per plant and seed yield per plant. The genetic variability and heritability studies reported that seed yield per plant exhibited the highest range of variability, followed by biological yield per plant, 100 seed weight, and plant height. High heritability estimates were observed for 100 seed weight, followed by biological yield per plant, plant height, seed yield per plant, and days to 50% flowering. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated the presence of sufficient genetic variation among the genotypes for all eleven traits. High genetic advance as a percentage of the mean was displayed by seed yield per plant and biological yield per plant.