Potentialities of Heterosis Breeding in Cicer

A preliminary study of nine crosses involving seven varieties of gram has shown that two of them (C.49 X Pb. 7 and C. 49 X E. B.) have given significantly greater grain yields than the best parent included in this study, Pb. 7. A comparison of the parental and F₁ performance in respect of the components of grain yield suggested that the observed heterosis is due to the combination of favourable expression present in the two parents, the F₁ not differing significantly from the superior parent in respect of either grain number/plant or grain weight. The utility of such heterosis in gram improvement has been considered.