Wide Hybridization For Widening Genetic Base In Chickpea : Evaluation Of Progenies Of Wide And Varietal Crosses For Yield And Yield Components In Chickpea (Cicer Arietinum L.)

The present investigation was carried out in Randomized Block Design during rabi season of 2005-06 with 25 genotypes derived from wide and intervarietal crosses and 5 checks of chickpea at Crop Research Center of G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand. The observations were recorded on days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, plant height, primary branches/, plant width, pods/ plant, seeds/pod, 100 seed weight and grain yield/plant to study genotypic, phenotypic variability, genetic advance, character association, genetic divergence and genetic relationship using SDS -PAGE. The ANOVA revealed highly significant genetic differences among genotypes for all the characters studied. High values of C.V. were observed for grain yield/plant, 100 seed weight, primary braches/plant and seeds/ pod. Amongst 25 genotypes only PG055 and PG053 were significantly superior for plant width and grain yield/ plant, respectively. Analysis of genotypic character association study revealed highly significant and positive association of days to maturity with plant height (0.496), seeds/ pod and days to 50% flowering (0.491), primary branches/plant and pods/ plant