DEVINDER PAL SINGH*, MOHIT JAIN AND MEENAKSHI GOYAL
Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics,
Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana (Punjab), India
*(e-mail : devinderpal301@pau.edu)
(Received : 01 November 2022; Accepted : 30 December 2022)
SUMMARY
The present study was conducted with 13 germplasm accessions along with two checks at experimental area of Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, PunjabAgricultural University,
Ludhiana during Kharif 2021. The objective of the study was to determine the extent of variability, correlations and path coefficients amongdifferent forage and qualitytraits. The high value of phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) and genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) was observed for Leaf-stem Ratio followed by Stem Girth, Green Fodder Yield and Vine Length. High heritability( >90%) was estimated for Vine Length, Number of Leaves and Neutral Detergent Fibre, while more than 85% heritability was observed for most of the characters such as green fodder yield, dry matter yield, crude protein, acid detergent fibre, In-vitro dry matter digestibility, leaf length, branches per plant and leaf stem ratio. Higher genetic advance was observed for Leaf-Stem Ratio (79.20%) and Vine Length (52.15%). Traits like Dry Matter Yield (0.96) and Vine Length (0.44) had positive and significant correlation with green fodder yield. Positive and direct effect of Vine Length (0.156), Leaf Length (0.184), Leaf Breadth (0.122), Stem Girth (0.043) and Leaf-Stem Ratio (0.154).The results suggest that traits like Vine Length, Leaf length, Leaf Breadth, Stem girth and Leaf-stem Ratio are the main fodder yield components. So, selection for these traits should be practiced in future breeding programme for improving the green fodder yield in cowpea.
Key words: Cowpea, forage, correlations, path coefficients