Relationship between yield and yield contributing characters in f5 population of chickpea (cicer Arietinum L.)

An experiment was conducted with four selection procedures of 20 progenies [PS(EF), PS(HY), SSD and RBP] of GJG 0719 x SAKI 9516 in F5 generation in Desi chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) to study the correlation and direct and indirect effects of different characters on seed yield. Correlation coefficients of seed yield per plant with various characters within F5 generation revealed that seed yield per plant exhibited significant and positive association at genotypic and phenotypic levels with number of pods per plant in all the selection procedures of the cross. Likewise, significant and positive association of seed yield per plant was observed with number of branches per plant in PS(EF) and PS(HY) at genotypic level and in SSD at phenotypic level; 100-seed weight in PS(EF) at genotypic level; biological yield per plant in PS(EF) at genotypic level only as well as in PS(HY) and RBP at both levels; Harvest index in SSD and RBP at both levels. Phenotypic path coefficient analysis revealed that very high to high direct effects were exerted by biological yield per plant and harvest index towards seed yield per plant in all the selection procedures of the cross. Overall, Number of pods per plant, biological yield per plant and harvest index could be used as indirect selection criteria for improving seed yield in segregating generations of chickpea with irrespective of the breeding selection procedures based on the correlations and path coefficient analysis.