Diversity in new chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) derivatives suitable for mechanized harvesting

Diversity analysis in twenty-eight chickpea genotypes was done using Mahalanobis's D² -statistic for grain yield and eight yield contributing traits viz; days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, 100-seed weight, seeds per pod, plant height, height of first pod and pods per plant. Chickpea genotypes grouped into five diverse clusters. The cluster V was the largest and consisted of 15 genotypes followed by clusters II which had 7 genotypes. The cluster I, III and IV had 2 genotypes, each. Cluster IV (GNG 1581 and CSJ 515) showed highest mean performance for grain yield, pods per plant and seeds per plant. Cluster I (H 12–17 and CSJ 303) was early in flowering as well as maturity. This cluster also had maximum plant height and height of first pod. Cluster III (DBGV 204 and NBeG 13114) showed higher mean performance for 100- seed weight. Maximum inter cluster distance was observed between cluster III and cluster IV(49.387) followed by cluster I and III (46.036) which indicated that the genotypes included in these different clusters may give high heterotic response and thereby better segregants. Minimum inter cluster D² value was observed between cluster I and cluster IV (7.365) followed by cluster II and cluster V (16.743) and cluster 1 and cluster V (20.409) indicating the close relationship among the genotypes included in these clusters. The genotypes DBGV 204, NBeG 13114, GNG 1581, CSJ 515, H 12–12 and CSJ 303 were identified as genetically diverse parents, which can be utilized for future crop improvement programme.