Relationship of Morpho-physiological traits with yield and its components for identifying efficient plant type in Pigeonpea

The present study was undertaken to assess the relationship of morpho-physiological characters among themselves as well as with yield and its components of 40 pigeonpea genotypes. The analysis of variance revealed significant difference among the genotypes for three morpho-physiological characters viz., Leaf Area Index (LAI), Net Assimilation Rate (NAR) and Crop Growth Rate (CGR) at different stages of crop growth, yield and its component characters. All the three morpho-physiological characters were significantly and positively related among themselves at all stages of crop growth except LAI with NAR at 90 days-final stage. Seed yield was observed to be positively and significantly correlated with NAR at 75–90 days stage. Path coefficient analysis revealed highest positive direct effect on seed yield via LAI at 45 days, via NAR at 45–60 days stage and via CGR at 30–45 days stage. Hence, higher productivity of a crop depends upon the persistence of high LAI for its greater part of its vegetative phase, its longer duration of maximum CGR and its rapid attainment of higher LAI and CGR.