A quantitative assessment of genetic diversity for eleven characters of soybean has been worked out by Mahalanobis's D2 statistics. The studies included thirty six genotypes of soybean obtained from different ecogeographical regions of India, which showed that there was a substantial genetic diversity between the genotypes with D2 values ranging from 33.64 to 379.08. Thirty six genotypes were grouped into six clusters. The clustering pattern revealed that genetic diversity was not necessarily associated with geographical diversity in this crop. The hybridization programme has been suggested on the basis of inter cluster divergence and cluster means for the character studied.
Genetic diversity, Soybean
