Genetic diversity studies in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) in Kolhapur region of Maharashtra.

Genetic diversity was assessed in 40 genotypes of chickpea using Mahalanobis’s D statistics. Ten quantitative characters including grain yield were considered for the study. D values between all possible pairs of 40 genotypes ranged from 23.23 to 1654.86 and seven clusters were formed with cluster II accommodating maximum 23 genotypes followed by cluster I with 11 genotypes and cluster IV with 2 genotypes. However, the cluster III, V, VI and VII were mono-genotypic indicating wide divergence from other clusters. The character 100 seed weight was the maximum contributor towards divergence (61.54%) followed by number of pods/plant (15.00%), days to 50 per cent flowering and seed yield/plant (6.92%), number of secondary branches (4.23%), number of seeds/pod (2.18%), protein content (1.55%) and number of primary branches (0.64%). The days to maturity and height of the plant (0.51%) were the lowest contributor towards divergence. On the basis of inter cluster distances, cluster means, per se performance observed in the present study the six genotypes viz., IC-83429, Vishal, Vijay, IC-83397, IC-83340 and IC-83523 were found to be superior genotypes for further breeding programme. Introduction Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) commonly known as Chana, Gram or Bengal gram. It belongs to the sub-family Papilionaceae of family Leguminoceae, is an important and unique food legume. It is an important pulse crop of the world occupying third position amongst pulses. Chickpea is a self-pollinated crop. Cross pollination is rare; only 0 1 per cent is reported. It is generally grown on heavy or red soils of pH 5.5 8.6. Frost, hailstones and excessive rains damage the crop. It is one of the most important Rabi pulse crops in Asia. India is largest producer (25%), importer (20%) and consumer (27%) of pulses in the world. In India the area under chickpea was 8.75 million ha. Production was 8.25 million tons and productivity 943 kg/ha. The D statistics is a tool which helps in the identifications of genetically divergent parents for their exploitation in hybridization programmes; as hybrids between lines of diverse origin display a greater heterosis than those between closely related strains. Murthy and Arunachalam (1966) stated that multivariate analysis with “Mahalanobis D statistics” is a powerful tool to know the clustering pattern to establish the relationship between genetic and geographic divergence and to determine the role of different quantitative characters towards the maximum divergence. The knowledge about the source of genetic diversity for the different characters is of considerable importance, since the prime aim of the plant breeder is to improve the yield and the quality by evolving superior varieties. An investigation into the nature and the degree of divergence is useful for an understanding of the course of evolution and for classifying population into groups on the basis of diversity, particularly, when they are overlapping for one or more characters. Author for correspondence: . Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, College of Agriculture, Kolhapur, Maharashtra-416004, India.