Assessment of variability and relationship among some quantitative traits in elite accessions of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Twenty elite chickpea accessions were evaluated for plant height(cm), internode length (cm), days to 50% flowering, number of primary branches per plant, number of secondary branches per plant, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per plant, number of seeds per pod, days to plant maturity, 100-seed weight (g) and seed yield per plant (g). The experiments were conducted during rabi season in 2008–09 and 2009–10 at CRC (Crop Research Centre) of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture & Technology, Meerut in augmented block design (Federer, 1956) with three replications under all suitable agronomic practices. The genetic parameter like range, mean, standard error, variance, standard deviation and correlation coefficient were estimated among 11 quantitative traits. Among the 20 chickpea accessions, plant height, internode length, days to 50% flowering, number of primary branches per plant, number of secondary branches per plant, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per plant, number of seeds per pod, days to plant maturity, 100-seed weight and seed yield per plant ranged from 21.3 -36.9 cm, 1.06 -2.7 cm, 111.5 -120 days, 1.7 -3.1, 3.6 -9.4, 4.4 -116.6, 4 -128.95, 0.47 -2.05, 151.5 -157.5 days, 9.96 -24.58 g and 0.94 -16.38 g/plant, respectively. Seed yield per plant showed highly significant positive correlation with number of pods per plant, number of seeds per plant and significant positive correlation with number of primary branches per plant, number of secondary branches per plant. Results showed that the number of primary branches per plant, number of secondary branches per plant, number of pods per plant and number of seeds per plant can be considered as a selection criterion for the improvement of seed yield.