Genetic diversity in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Present study was undertaken to find out genetic diversity among 40 genotypes of chickpea using Mahalanobis D² statistics. The 40 genotypes were grouped into seven clusters, of which Cluster I was largest with 30 genotypes. Protein content (41.92%) and number of pods per plant (28.21%) contributed maximum to total divergence. Maximum intra cluster distance was observed for Cluster III (41.39) which indicated that the three genotypes in Cluster III were most divergent. Maximum inter cluster distance was observed between Cluster V and VI (135.73) followed by Cluster V and VII (112.06), suggesting maximum diversity between them. One genotype from Cluster V (IC 244237) could be utilized as parent in further breeding program with desirable genotypes belonging to Cluster VI.