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Pigeonpea, a predominant protein source for vast vegetarian population is constrained by numerous biotic and abiotic stresses. Inefficient exploitation of pigeonpea germplasm has limited its utilization. Therefore it is important to identify and select breeding material from germplasm with sufficient genetic variability to utilize in hybridization programmes. In this regard ~200 F2 plants each from four different crosses were evaluated in Kharif-2019 at University of Agricultural Sciences Bengaluru. They were assessed for genetic variability, heritability, genetic advance as per cent of mean and trait association. High phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation was noticed for pods plant-1, clusters plant-1 and seed yield plant-1. High heritability coupled with higher genetic advance as per cent mean was noticed for secondary branches plant-1, clusters plant-1 and pods plant-1. Seed yield plant-1 showed highest significant positive correlation with pods plant-1 and clusters plant-1, indicating these traits were the primary yield determinants in pigeonpea. Path coefficient analysis revealed that secondary branches plant-1 showed highest positive direct effect on seed yield plant-1 followed by pods plant-1 and clusters plant-1, thus selection based on these traits would be rewarding. Among the four crosses evaluated, highest numbers of transgressive segregants were identified from the cross BRG-1 × BDN-2 followed by HY3C × BDN-2 for yield and its related traits. The identified transgressive segregants could be evaluated for further exploitation.
Nagaraja et al. (Fri,) studied this question.