Indian Journal of Plant Genetic Resources

Diversity in yardlong bean (Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis), an under-utilized vegetable legume was collected from parts of North coastal Andhra Pradesh (Srikakulam and Viziznagaram districts) and adjoining regions of Odisha (Koraput and Gajapati districts). Substantial variation was observed among the 39 accessions collected. Most of collections had pods which were light green (28), some were light green with purple tip (6), and a few were dark green (4); one accession (IC582551, Jeypore, Koraput, Odisha) had purple pods with green tip. Variation in pod length ranged from 24–75 cm; fresh pod weight (10 pods) from 60–140 g and seeds/pod from 6.2–17. Pod length had the highest dispersion index (158%), followed by100-seed weight (127%), fresh pod weight (89%) and seeds/pod (83%). Accessions IC582850 and IC582863 had the longest pods (75 cm). A pure line selection from IC582850 (Jeypore, Odisha) is released for cultivation as ‘Arka Mangala’. This pole type, photo-insensitive variety with green, smooth pods and a crop duration of 3–4 months recorded a pod yield of 25.7 t/ha with an increase of 24% and 30% pod yield over the check varieties ‘Lola’ and ‘Vyjayanthi’, respectively.