Genetic Improvement of Chickpea : Improvement of Chickpea (Cicer arientinum L.) for Yield and Yield Components through Irradiation and Breeding

The present work deals with variability, correlation, path-coefficient and selection index for eleven quantitative characters in chickpea. Variability of the studied characters exhibited that they were quantitative in nature and under polygenic control. For all the characters phenotypic variation was greater than those of environmental components of variation. Phenotypic coefficients of variability (PCV) in general were higher than the estimates of genotypic coefficient of variability (GCV) for all the characters, which suggested that the apparent variation is not only due to the genotypes but also due to the influence of environment. The heritability, genetic advance (GA) and genetic advance as percentage of mean (GA %) estimates in the present investigation were found to be low which indicates that the scope for improving traits through selection is limited. SW/P was positively correlated with DMF, NPBMF, NSBMF, PWFD, PdW/P, and NS/P both at phenotypic and genotypic levels. Path coefficient analyses indicated that PdW/P and NS/P having high positive direct effect on yield were the major contributors to SW/P.