One hundred twenty genotypes of field pea were evaluated with four check varieties to assess genetic divergence for grain yield and its contributing traits. Significant differences among all the genotypes were recorded for all the characters studied except number of primary branches per plant. All the genotypes were grouped into twelve different non-overlapping clusters by Non-hierarchical Euclidean cluster analysis on the basis of D2 values. The genotypes of cluster I had highest mean value (20.585g) for 100 seed weight. The genotypes of cluster III had highest mean value for seeds per pod (7.074) as well as for pod length (7.984). The genotypes of cluster V had lowest value for days to 50% flowering (62.250 days) as well as for days to maturity (114.531 days). The genotypes of cluster VI had highest mean value for harvest index (55.971) followed by biological yield per plant (37.407) and seed yield per plant (20.819). The genotypes of cluster VII had highest value for pods per plant (19.485). The genotypes of cluster XII had highest mean value for plant height (103.127) as well as for branches per plant (2.135). Cluster VI had minimum genotypes namely, FP 14-81, FP 11-72 and EC-507770, these are the best genotypes on the basis of their mean performance for seed yield and its contributing traits. Cluster XI was found largest with twenty genotypes following cluster II & cluster X (15), cluster VIII (13), cluster IX (12), cluster I (11), cluster III & VII (9), cluster V (8), cluster XII (5) and cluster IV (4). The highest intra cluster distance was observed within cluster VII (16.392) followed by cluster IX (10.544), cluster X (9.977), cluster I (9.911), cluster VI (8.616), cluster IV (7.866), cluster III (7.707), cluster XI (7.362), cluster XII (6.801), cluster V (6.617) and cluster II (6.616). While lowest intra cluster distance was observed within cluster VIII (5.336).The inter cluster distance between cluster II and cluster VIII was lowest (11.633). The maximum inter cluster distance was recorded between cluster IV and XII (58.308) and between cluster VI and cluster XI (54.180), which suggested that genotypes of these clusters are genetically very diverse to each other and inter mating among these genotypes would be rewarded for improving grain yield. The analysis of character contribution towards genetic divergence indicated that the maximum contributions in manifestation of total genetic divergence were made by plant height, harvest index and days to 50 per cent flowering.

Download this article as