Yirga, M., Bantayehu, M. (2025). Genetic variability and heritability for seed yield and other characters in desi type of chickpea (Cicer arietium L.) genotypes. Egyptian Journal of Agricultural Research, 103(3), 321-333. doi: 10.21608/ejar.2025.358557.1641
Mengistu T. Yirga; Muluken Bantayehu. "Genetic variability and heritability for seed yield and other characters in desi type of chickpea (Cicer arietium L.) genotypes". Egyptian Journal of Agricultural Research, 103, 3, 2025, 321-333. doi: 10.21608/ejar.2025.358557.1641
Yirga, M., Bantayehu, M. (2025). 'Genetic variability and heritability for seed yield and other characters in desi type of chickpea (Cicer arietium L.) genotypes', Egyptian Journal of Agricultural Research, 103(3), pp. 321-333. doi: 10.21608/ejar.2025.358557.1641
Yirga, M., Bantayehu, M. Genetic variability and heritability for seed yield and other characters in desi type of chickpea (Cicer arietium L.) genotypes. Egyptian Journal of Agricultural Research, 2025; 103(3): 321-333. doi: 10.21608/ejar.2025.358557.1641
Genetic variability and heritability for seed yield and other characters in desi type of chickpea (Cicer arietium L.) genotypes
1Sirinka Agricultural Research Center, Amhara Agricultural Research Institute, Ethiopia
2College of Agricultural and Environmental Science, Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia.
Abstract
Chickpea is the major pulse grown in Ethiopia, mainly by subsistence farmers, usually under rain-fed conditions. This study was conducted to determine the variability, heritability, correlations, and path analysis between yield and yield components in 81 desi chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) genotypes. The experiments were conducted at the field area of Jari, Sirinka and Kobo using a simple lattice design with two replications. There were significant genetic differences between genotypes for all characters except, for the number of seeds per pod and number of leaflet studied. This suggested an enormous scope of genotype selection for desirable characters. Broad-sense heritability ranged from 80.00% (pod length) to 99.56% (100- seed weight). High heritability for days to flowering, days to maturity, pod filling period, days to podding, number of pods per plant, 100- seed weight, seed yield, biomass and harvest index with high genetic advance. Estimation of correlation coefficients, except for primary branch and number of seeds per pod a positive correlation with seed yield at phenotypic and genotypic levels. The path coefficient analysis based on seed yield per plant, as a dependent variable, revealed that all other traits, except days to pod and pod filling period exhibited positive direct effects. Biomass, days to maturity and harvest index showed the highest direct influence with 80%, 77%, 35% respectively. Therefore, this research suggests that biomass, days to maturity and harvest index can be good selection criteria for improving seed yield per plant in the Desi-type chickpea.