Nuclear Agriculture and Biotechnology Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay, Mumbai - 400 085, India.
Cowpea {Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp} is a versatile food legume crop of the tropical and sub tropical regions of the world (Singh et al, 1997). The average productivity of cowpea is however low because of several factors including biotic and abiotic stresses and agro-physiological constraints (Terao et al., 1997). Yield being a complex character, is affected by several direct and indirect factors. Leaf area is one such yield-attributing factor. Leaf area and other morphological characters have been found to be significantly and positively correlated with yield in some crops like brassicas (Singh et al., 2000) and pepper (Bouslama et al., 2001; Aliyu et al., 2000). Leaf area has also been found to be the trait associated with the higher yielding ability of wheat mutants (Larik et al., 1980). An important role of leaf area in determining the forage yield (biomass) in fodder crops (Rayburn, 1993) and the drought tolerance in common bean (Wright and Redden, 1998) has been recognized. As correlation studies give us an idea of the magnitude and direction of association of plant parts to the yield and yield components, the present study was undertaken to dissect completely the role of leaf area as a component of grain yield in cowpea.
