Assessment of Genetic Divergence for Yield and Yield Related Traits in Chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) Germplasm

Evaluation of 35 Chilli genotypes in two seasons during Kharif, 2019 and Rabi, 2019-20 was taken up with an objective to estimate the genetic divergence for yield and yield attributing traits. In respect of per plant fruit yield, Only one genotype IC-347044 (0.82 kg) recorded significantly higher value than the best check LCA-625 (0.65 kg). The genetic divergence of genotypes was estimated using Mahalanobis’s D² statistics. The genotypes were grouped into six different clusters, among which cluster I was the largest comprising of 16 genotypes. Results revealed that the character capsanthin content contributed maximum (48.91%) towards diversity followed by ascorbic acid (47.23%), capsaicin content (1.85 %), number of fruits per plant (1.18%), fruit weight (0.67%) and chlorophyll content (0.17%). The inter cluster D² values revealed that the highest inter cluster generalized distance (4626.16) was between cluster IV and cluster V and the lowest (619.86) was between cluster I and cluster III. The genotypes belonging to the cluster IV (IC-526448, EC-378632, IC-561622) and V (IC-394819, IC-570408, EC-378688, IC-528442) should be crossed to develop superior chilli hybrids with yield and its component traits through heterosis breeding.