Abstract:

To assess the genetic variability of the cowpea genotypes for yield, a field experiment was conducted at research field of National Grain Legumes Research Program (NGLRP), Khajura, Banke, Nepal during summer season of 2019. Twelve cowpea genotypes were evaluated in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Analysis of variance indicated that all the genotypes were significantly different for an early stand, 50% flowering days, 90% maturity days, pods per plant, seeds per plant, final stand, 100 seed weight, grain yield except for plant height. Genotypes namely IT10K-815-5, IT10K-973-1, IT82D-889 were top performer cowpea genotypes. Traits namely seeds per pods, pods per plants, plant height, hundred grain weight and grain yield had moderate to high genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variation (GCV and PCV), heritability and genetic advance as a percentage of mean (GAM). All these traits had > 17% GCV and PCV, > 60% heritability and > 30% GAM. Multivariate analysis showed that twelve genotypes were grouped under three clusters and three principle components with eigenvalue more than one having 83.6% total variability. Genotypes belong to three different cluster and principle component showed considerable genetic diversity and can be used in further breeding programs. Genotypes such as IT08K-150-12 and IT82-1337 belong to the second cluster had the highest grain yield of 2.22 ton ha1 and 2.20 ton ha-1 respectively.

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