Department of Plant Breeding, Haryana Agricultural University, Hissar, 125004, India
Diallel analysis in cowpea revealed that both additive and non-additive type of gene actions were involved in the inheritance of kernel weight. The GCA : SCA ratio indicated preponderance of additive genetic variance. Combining ability analysis further revealed that HFC 20, C 28 and FOS 1, all bold seeded varieties, were good general combiners for higher kernel weight. The use of array means has been suggested in place of GCA effects. The use of per se performance of the hybrids instead of their SCA effects has been advocated. C 28 × HFC 139, HFC 20 × C 28 and HFC 20 × FOS 1 wre found to be the best crosses. In the light of these findings suitable breeding techniques have been suggested.
