Study on Genetic Variability and Selection Strategy for Enhancing Productivity in Urdbean [Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper]

Abstract

Twenty-two genotypes were evaluated for thirteen biometric traits to assess available genetic variability and formulate a selection strategy for enhancing productivity in urdbean. The analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the genotypes for all agro-morphological characters, including seed yield under study. VBN 08 is sorted out as a top-yielding (3.95 g/plant) test genotype among the materials tested. Besides, IC-106-176 and the local land race “Barabanki” also managed to have high yield performance (>3.0 g/plant) almost at par with “Shekhar-2” (3.26 g/plant). All these high-yielding genotypes had shown improved mean performance for major yield contributing traits viz., pods per plant, seeds per pod, and 100-seed weight. VBN 08 bore longer pods (4.11cm) and bold seeds (100-seed wt=4.30g) with a maximum number of seeds/pod (6.25). The high Genotypic Coefficient of Variation (GCV) and Phenotypic Coefficient of Variation (PCV) were displayed by the number of primary branches per plant (PBPP), seed yield per plant, biological yield per plant, number of clusters per plant and number of pods per plant. The highest estimates of heritability in a broad sense and genetic gain (% of mean) were exhibited by the number of primary branches per plants followed by seed yield per plant, biological yield per plant, and pods per plant. A regression equation was shown to be fit to Y (seed yield) = -3.774 + 0.183 (clusters/plant) + 0.487 (pods/ plant) + 0.271 (seeds/pod) + 0.206 (100-seed wt.) + 0.034 (harvest index) to serve as selection model for enhancing seed yield in urdbean.