Genetic divergence of thirty-one local rice bean cultivars of Manipur hills and genotype CXM12P3 from the N.B.P.G.R., was studied. Based on Mahalanobis D2 values, the genotypes were classified into five different clusters following Tocher's method. Depending upon the inte-cluster distance, cluster mean value and mean per se performance of the best genotype within the cluster, cross combinations involving different selected parents for various breeding objectives were suggested: RBMI x RBMIO for shorter plant height, early flowering and higher number of seeds per pod, RBMIO x RBM17 for higher primary branches, per plant, RBM11 x RBM17 for higher number of pods per plant and grain yield per plant, RBM31 x RBM17 for higher length of pod and seed weight.
Rice bean, genetic divergence, D2 statistic
