Abstract

Tsehai Alemayehu Ali, Choramo Abune Paulos and Haymanot Abuna Mahay

In Ethiopia, there has been no detail information on the extent and patterns of variability present in pigeon pea genotypes so far. As a result, hundred pigeon pea genotypes were tested in a 10 × 10 simple lattice design at Areka Research Center, Ethiopia during 2009 cropping season. The objectives of the study were to estimate the genetic variability, heritability and genetic divergence among 100 genotypes and cluster them in to genetically homogenous groups. The analysis of variance revealed highly significant difference (p≤ 0.01) for most traits. High phenotypic (PCV) and genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) was recorded for harvest index and biomass yield per plant. High heritability coupled with high expected genetic advance as percent of mean was recorded for 100-seed weight, seed yield per plot, plant height, biomass yield per plant and harvest index. The genetic divergence was assessed using Mahalanobis D2 statistics and the genotypes were grouped into six clusters. Distances between these clusters were significantly different for most of the cluster combinations. Therefore, the present study indicated that there is sufficient genetic diversity in pigeon pea germplasm that could be used as a base for improvement of the yield and other important attributes of this crop through direct selection and hybridization. Future work may also proceed in collecting and characterizing all the pigeon pea germplasms found in Ethiopia and developing short duration and high yielding varieties.