Genetic Variability and Character Association Study for Yield and Attributing Traits in Lentil (Lens culinaris Medikus.) under Terai Agro-climatic Conditions of West Bengal

Aims: To evaluate the genotypes for different yields and yield attributing morphological traits by estimation of GCV, PCV, heritability (h2) in a broad sense and genetic advance as percent of the mean. To study the character association between yield and yield attributes and further partitioning into their direct and indirect effect on yield for consideration of appropriate traits to facilitate the selection of desirable genotypes.

Place and duration of Study: Lentil genotypes were evaluated in the instructional farm of Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Pundibari, Cooch Behar, West Bengal during the rabi season of 2019-2020 and 2020-2021.

Methodology: Forty lentil genotypes including two checks viz., WBL77 and IPL220 were evaluated in alpha lattice design with three replications following the standard cultural practices. The observations were recorded as the average of the same in five randomly sampled plants in each plot for all the eleven attributes studied. Statistical analysis was carried out using the R v. 4.1.1 software.

Results: ANOVA revealed significant variation for all the characters among the genotypes and also for genotype vs. year interaction. Characters such as plant height (96.20%1, 26.32%2), secondary branches plant-1 (91.79%1, 28.59%2), number of pods plant-1 (97.98%1, 89.67%2), pod weight plant-1(g) (96.82%1, 90.15%2), 100 seed weight (g) (98.13%1, 40.92%2), yield plant-1(g) (96.68%1, 91.20%2)and harvest index (%) (94.28%1, 33.06%2) showed high heritability (1) coupled with high genetic advance as percentage of mean(2). Genotypic correlation study revealed that number of pods plant-1 (0.846), primary branches plant-1 (0.905), secondary branches plant-1 (0.416), pod weight plant-1(0.992) and harvest index (0.432) were significantly and positively correlated with yield plant-1. Path coefficient studies revealed that characters like pod weight plant-1(0.699), primary branches plant-1 (0.241), harvest index (0.083), number of pods plant-1 (0.070), 100 seed weight (0.063) and days to 90% maturity (0.047) had positive direct effect on yield.

Conclusion: The present study revealed significant variability among the genotypes as far as the characters taken under study were concerned. Further, the characters showing positive and significant correlation could be considered favorably for a further selection of desirable genotypes.