Assessment of genetic diversity among germplasm lines of horsegram (Macrotyloma uniflorum) at Bijapur

In Northern dry zone of Karnataka lot of variability exists in horse gram crop as many farmers are growing local cultivars which are resistant to iron chlorosis and also to diseases and pest with high forage yield. In the present study, an attempt was made to assess the genetic divergence among the 100 germplasm lines using Mahalanobis D² statistic collected from different sources including local checks and the experiment was carried out during late Kharif season of 2009 at RARS, Bijapur. The observations were recorded on seed yield and its components. The 100 germplasm lines that were grouped into eighteen different clusters based on D² analysis revealed that Cluster I was the largest with 19 genotypes followed by cluster III (14) and cluster V (13). Cluster XII showed the maximum mean value for seed yield. The intra and inter cluster divergence among the genotypes was varying in magnitude. Further it was implied that intra-cluster distance was maximum in cluster III followed by clusters XI and XIII. The widest inter cluster distance was noted between cluster XII and XV giving scope for hybridization programme with improvement of genotypes. The distance between clusters X and V was minimum indicating close relationship between those clusters.