Division of Genetics, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, 110 012, India
1Present address: Nuclear Research Laboratory, IARI, New Delhi.
2Present address: IARI, Regional Research Centre, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad (A.P.).
A germ plasm of 165 varieties from 21 countries was studied for 28 vegetative, reproductive, pod and seed characters. The components of variability in Indian and exotic germ plasm are different. Vigorous plant growth, erect plant type, early flowering but late maturity, more number of pods per secondary branch as well as per plant, seeds per pod, small less wrinkled seed and wilt resistance contributed to higher yield. The variability for most of these components is limited in Indian collection. Desirable allels for seed size are located in the Near East, Mediterranean and Iranian collections, for early maturity, more primary and secondary branches in Mexican and for less leaf drying in African collection. Exotic collections can be utilized to transfer these specific traits to Indian adaptive varieties. New yield raising characters are identified. The relevant correlation is also presented.
