Abstract

Groundnut is an important legume crop and is used as a food, oil and cash source. Mean and variability are the important factors for selection and they overcome the problems of handling larger segregating populations. Among the three crosses studied in the F3 generation, the cross TMV 2 x COG 0437 had superior mean performance for plant height, number of branches per plant, number of pods per plant, pod yield per plant, kernel yield per plant, hundred kernel weight, rust and late leaf spot severity score and also on par with the genotype TMV 2 for shelling percentage. All the progenies of the cross TMV 2 x COG 0437 were recorded superior mean performance for number of pods / plant, pod yield / plant, kernel yield / plant, hundred kernel weight, rust and late leaf spot severity score. The crosses viz., TMV 2 x COG 0437, TMV 2 x COG 0438 and TMV 2 x ICGV 97150 also recorded high or moderate coefficient of variation for all the characters.

Keywords: roundnut, mean performance, coefficient of variation.