Study on lentil (<i>Lens culinaris</i> Medikus) genotypes for its yield and attributing characters and DUS characterization under <i>Terai </i>Region of West Bengal

Lentil (Lens culinaris M.) is one of the important rabi pulse crops in India. Despite high-yielding varieties, there is a lack of resources available to respond to malnutrition in developing countries. Therefore, the present investigation was carried out on 40 diversified lentil genotypes to determine the most suitable genotypes based on the studied characters. Under the present investigation, the forty genotypes, including two checks viz., WBL77 and IPL220 was, laid in an alpha lattice design during rabi season of 2019-20 and 2020-21 at the instructional farm of Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Coochbehar, West Bengal. To access the divergence cluster, an analysis was carried out using tocher values using Mahalanobish D2 distances. On the contrary, the Distinctness, Uniformity, and Stability (DUS) characterization were done after PPV&FR guidelines on lentil. A study on correlation revealed that seed zinc showed a significantly negative (-0.216*) association with yield plant-1. The forty lentil genotypes formed six clusters, with cluster I consisting of the highest 15 genotypes and cluster VI monogenotypic, with maximum inter-cluster distance found between cluster III and VI (317.77) and seed protein content showed the highest contribution towards total divergence (40.8%). A study on flowering habits revealed that one genotype was found to be a determinate type and the rest were indeterminate. The association study revealed a significant positive correlation between seed cooking time and seed sizes (0.433**) and the cooking score showed a significant negative (-0.278*) correlation with seed size. However, IC614827 was found to have the most suitable genotypes than others in the field due to its notable performance.