Background: Pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.] being an often cross- pollinated crop offers a wide range of genetic diversity which gives a tremendous scope for genetic improvement of economic traits. Improvement in yield and quality traits in pigeonpea is normally achieved by selecting the genotypes with desirable characters combinations existing in nature or by hybridization.
Method: The experimental material was undertaken during Kharif season of year 2021-22 at Research-cum-Instructional Farm, Department of Genetics & Plant Breeding, IGKV, Raipur. The experimental material for present study consisted 20 germplasm of pigeonpea. The biochemical analysis was conducted to estimate the protein content using Kjeldahl’s method in each genotype. The genotypes were planted in Completely Randomized Block Design (CRBD) with 3 replications.
Result: The study reported maximum PCV (%) and GCV (%) for no. of pods/plant. High heritability was observed for characters viz., days to 50% flowering, protein content and duration of flowering. High GA (%) was observed for no. of pods/plant followed by seed yield/plant, primary branches/plant. Characters namely plant height, primary branches/plant, no. of pods/plant and no. of seeds/pods reported high and positive correlation with seed yield/plant. Path coefficient analysis showed that characters no. of pods/plant, plant height, days to maturity, days to 50% flowering protein content had direct positive effect. Genetic divergence study revealed that 20 different genotypes of pigeonpea was divided into 5 cluster also, cluster II comprised of maximum genotypes (16), while other cluster I, III, IV and cluster V had minimum entry numbers.