Genetic variability, correlation and path analysis in groundnut

Eighteen local collections of groundnut, along with checks (TAG-24 and Kopergoan-3) were evaluated in Randomised Block Design with three replications for assessment of variability, correlation and path analysis at college of Agriculture, Gadchiroli during 2015–16. The analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the genotypes for all characters, indicating genetic variability. For all the traits, phenotypic coefficients of variations were higher than the genotypic coefficient of variations. The small differences observed between genotypic and phenotypic variability for number of mature pods plant⁻¹, weight of dry haulm plant⁻¹ and weight of dry pods in kg ha⁻¹ suggested that these characters were less influenced by environment. Positive and significant genotypic and phenotypic correlations between number of mature pods plant⁻¹ and weight of dry pods in kg ha⁻¹ was observed. Path co-efficient analysis also indicated that number of mature pods plant⁻¹, number of primary branches plant⁻¹ and days to 50% flowering had positive direct effect on yield of dry pods. Improvement in yield of groundnut can thus be achieved by improving number of mature pods plant⁻¹.