GENETIC ASSOCIATION STUDIES FOR YIELD AND YIELD RELATED TRAITS IN PIGEONPEA (CAJANUS CAJAN)

Twenty five Pigeonpea genotypes were evaluated in a randomized block design during Kharif 2017-2018. The objective of this research was to study correlation, direct and indirect effects among yield and other fifteen yield related traits aim for genetic improvement of Pigeonpea. Seed yield per plant had positive and highly significant correlation with biological yield (0.983), harvest index (0.788), number of seeds per pod (0.462), number of pod cluster per plant (0.311) and number of pods per plant (0.313). Thus, selection for higher yield on the basis of above characters would be consistent. Seed yield per plant exhibited positive but not significant correlation with days to flowering initiation (0.187), days to 50 % flowering (0.118), 100 seed weight (0.149), dal recovery (0.099) and rest all characters are negatively correlated with seed yield per plant. The characters viz., number of pod cluster per plant (1.655), biological yield (0.754), harvest index (0.288) showed high and positive direct effect on seed yield per plant and it was positive and moderate in case of number of primary branches (0.103). The direct effect of number of pods per plant (-1.625), number of secondary branches (-0.181), days to flower initiation (-0.074) seems to be high but in negative direction