Abstract

Combining ability analysis, involving four lines and three testers was made in cowpea and studied for ten quantitative characters. The variance due to g.c.a. and s.c.a. showed that gene action was predominantly non-additive for days to 50 per cent flowering, days to maturity, plant height, pod length, seeds per pod, 100 grain weight and yield per plant and primarily additive for primary branches per plant, clusters per plant and pods per plant. The genotypes Co 4, C 87, C,152 and CoVu 4 were found to be the good general combiners. The crosses co 3 x C 152, Co 3 x CoVu 4, Co 4 x C 152, V 87 x C 152 and KC 199 x KC 195 were observed to have higher s.c.a effects for some of the yield components.

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