Genetic Diversity Analysis in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Genotypes in South-Eastern Rajasthan, India

A field experiment was conducted during Rabi 2019-20 to study genetic diversity in forty chickpea genotypes. The grouping of chickpea genotypes into eight clusters suggested the presence of wide genetic diversity among them. The Cluster III was the largest including 10 genotypes followed by cluster IV (9 genotypes), cluster II (7 genotypes), cluster VI (6 genotypes), cluster V (4 genotypes), cluster VI (2 genotypes) while clusters I and VIII had one genotype each. The maximum inter cluster distance was observed between cluster V and cluster VIII, followed by cluster I and VIII, cluster VI and cluster VIII, cluster I and cluster II indicating wide diversity among genotypes in these clusters that could be well exploited in chickpea hybridization programme for improving seed yield. The present investigation revealed that the clusters I and VII are most diverse to each other, therefore, the genotypes constituted in these clusters may be used as parents for further hybridization programme. The present study revealed that the maximum contribution towards divergence was made by seed yield per plant (18.07%), biological yield (15.5%), number of pods per plant (13.26%), number of branches per plant (10.61%) and number of seeds per pod (8.16%). Therefore, these characters should be given importance during selection for high yielding chickpea genotypes and varieties.