Abstract

                                The present study aimed to estimate the nature and magnitude of geneticdivergence in 60 horse gram genotypes for ten characters using MahalanobisD2 analysis. The genotypes were grouped into thirteen clusters. Concerningintracluster distance, the genotypes falling within cluster III (31.51) hasmaximum divergence. Maximum inter-cluster distance was observedbetween cluster VIII and XIII (184.05), followed by cluster XI and XIII (170.83).Cluster VIII exhibited a higher mean for hundred seed weight, grain yield perplot and Bhusa yld/plot and cluster VI contained genotypes with the highermean value for pod length and the number of seeds per pod. Among the yieldcontributing characters, the traits viz.,grain yield per plot (28.30%) followedby the number of pods per plant (26.21 %) and the number of branches perplant (18.36%) contributes to major genetic divergence.The results indicatedthat from cluster IV the genotype HA 871-5-67/2 was selected for plantheight, from cluster II the genotype Morappur-1 was chosen for the numberof branches per plant, from cluster XII the accession HG 102 was selectedfor the trait number of pods per plant, from cluster VI the genotype T 45was chosen for pod length and the number of seeds per pod. From clusterVIII the genotypes 12EB and IC 9606 were nominated for hundred seedweight, grain yield per plot and Bhusa yield per plot(g).

Key words : Horse gram;D2 analysis; Cluster