Study on Genetic Variation in Different Physiological Characters of Cyamopsis tetragonoloba (L.) Grown under Rainfed Condition

Abstract

Grain legumes are the second important crop after cereals for human and animal diets and has important place in the world’s food and nutrition economy. Grain legumes being a high source of protein alleviating protein deficiency and malnutrition of poor people in developing countries. The nitrogen fixing ability of legumes helps in sustaining the soil fertility and texture (Graham and Vance 2003). Legume crop has low and unstable productivity because they mostly grown on marginal land under rainfed situation. Besides the hares hot arid condition and rainfed situation, lack of high yielding variety, incidences of disease and insect pest attack, sowing time, inadequate fertilization and agronomic practices are the other major causes of low productivity of this crop. Genetic makeup helps in determining the potential yield of crop. The availability of genetic diversity and its successful collection, maintenance, utilization and conservation is pre-requisite for crop improvement program. The wide genetic diversity in any crop helps in identifying genotypes that could be used in developing high-yielding varieties through hybridization. The genetic variability existing in cluster bean germplasm has been evaluated by using various morphological and biochemical traits. Conspicuous morphological variations are displayed for branching (branched/unbranched), pubescence (hairy/smooth), pod shape (straight/sickle), growth habit (determinate to indeterminate), pod bearing pattern (regular/irregular). The study validates that the number of pods and number of branches are important characters for improvement of seed yield in clusterbean.