Assessing of Genetic Variability and Character Associations of Collected Ethiopian Field pea Landraces (Pisum sativum var. abyssinicum L.) at Southeastern Ethiopia

The experiments were carried out during 2021 cropping season (June, 2021–November, 2021) at three locations (Bekoji, Asasa and Kofele). The objective of the experiment was to assess the quantity of genetic variability and character association of agronomic traits. A total of 45 dekoko field pea genotypes were collected and evaluated at three locations (Bekoji, Asasa, and Kofele) using a randomized complete block design (RCBD). The analysis of variance revealed that the presence of highly significant differences among evaluated genotypes for most traits and genotype×location interaction showed a non-significance difference. The genetic parameter results of PCV, GCV, heritability in the broad sense and genetic advance were recorded from lower to highest values. Higher heritability estimates and genetic advances were observed from plant height, powdery mildew, thousand seed weight and grain yield ha-1. Grain yield showed a highly significant (p<0.01) and positive association with days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, plant height, number of seeds plant-1, pod length, thousand seed weight and powdery mildew at the genotypic level. The path analysis result revealed that days to flowering, plant height, and pod length had positive direct effects on grain yield, while the remaining traits have negative direct effects on the grain yield performance of genotypes. The result showed the presence of sufficient variability among collected landraces for further field pea breeding improvement programs.