Variation and inter-relationships of quantitative traits in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Thirty two chickpea genotypes were evaluated for days to flowering, days to maturity, plant height, primary branches, secondary branches, pods per plant, 100 seed weight and grain yield per plant. Genetic parameters, correlations, path coefficients and partial regressions were estimated for all the traits. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the genotypes for all the characters. Broad sense heritability estimates for various traits ranged from 39 - 97%. Grain yield per plant showed highly significant positive correlation with days to maturity, primary branches, secondary branches and 100 seed weight and significant positive correlation with pods per plant. Path coefficient analysis revealed that pods per plant and 100 seed weight had the highest direct effect on grain yield per plant followed by secondary branches.