Expedition, Collection and Evaluation of Rajmash (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) Folk Germplasm Accessions Collected from Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh for Genetic Variability and Heritability Studies

Rajmash is popularly known as Indian field bean, a neglected, underutilized crop grown in the hilly tracts with cool temperatures. Eastern ghats of Andhra Pradesh has rich biodiversity. It is very important to collect conserve and evaluate the rajmash germplasm accessions. Desirable germplasm accessions need to be utilized in the breeding programmes.

Seventy rajmash germplasm accessions are collected from the hilly tracts of eastern ghats of Andhra Pradesh, along with pass port data and evaluated for heritability and variability in two seasons for important traits i.e., days to 50% flowering, plant height, number of pods per plant, pod length, number of seeds per pod, test weight and grain yield kg/ha.

The germplasm accessions studied has shown high variability and heritability. Among all the germplasm accessions CTPL-RJM-2021-07 (2146 kg/ha) and CTPL-RJM-2021-65 (1842 kg/ha) recorded significant highest grain yield when compared with the best check Jwala (1477 kg/ha). The rajmash germplasm accessions has wide variability and heritability and may be utilized in the breeding programme based on the breeding objective.