Abstract

                                The experiment was conducted at the National Pulses Research Centre,Vamban, during Kharif 2020. F2 generation of four crosses was utilized inthis study. Around 150-200 single plants per cross were used for observation.The traits viz., plant height, number of branches per plant, number of clusterper plant, number of pods per cluster, number of pods per plant, 100 - seedweight and seed yield per plant recorded high PCV, GCV, high heritabilityalong with high genetic advance as per cent of the mean. It indicatedthat these traits were less influenced by the environment and possessedhigh genetic variability. Also, these traits had a positive and significantcorrelation with seed yield in most of the crosses. The trait number podsper plant recorded positive and high direct effects on seed yield. Hence,based on correlation and path analyses, the number of pods per plant canbe considered as a selection index for seed yield improvement programmein blackgram. However, population-specific selection indices are preferredas the association of traits varies with the populations.

Key words : Blackgram; Segregating population; Variability studies; Correlation analysis; Path analysis