Evaluation of Pea (Pisum sativum L.) genotypes in Nagaland ecosystem for yield and yield-related traits

Pea is an authenticated vegetable crop in the ethnic tribes of Nagaland and plays a major role in their traditions.Developing high-yieldingelite variants of pea can be achieved by leveraging the genetic variability present within the population.Hence, the present study was aimed at understanding the genetic variability and trait association of grain quality and yield traits in 29 pea accessions.Observations were recorded for eleven yield-contributing traits.Analysis of variance revealed significant variation for all the parameters under study.In this present study, high genotypic and phenotypic variation was observed for traits, seed yield per plant followed by plant height, number of pods per plant, seed indexand number of branches per plant indicating the presence of ample variation for these traits in the present material.In the present study, all yield and yield related traits exhibit high (>60%) heritability except pod length.High heritability coupled with high genetic advance percentage of the means was observed for all traits except pod length, pod diameter and shelling percentage.Seed yield per plant exhibited positive and significant correlations with various traits, viz., no. of pods per plant, pod length, 100 seed weight and no. of seeds per pod at genotypic and phenotypic level.Plant height showedpositive and significant correlations at phenotypic level.Path analysis revealed that pod length has the highest positive direct effect and also exhibited significant positive correlation with yield indicating a true relationship between the traits.The existing variability identified can be further exploited in crop improvement of field pea.