Genetic variability and characters association for lodging, yield and related traits of field pea (Pisum sativum L.) genotypes in contrasting plant types

A total of 49 field pea genotypes, belonging to two different plant types were evaluated for 13 traits at Bekoji and Kofele in 2020 to assess the extent of genetic variability and association among morpho-agronomic traits. Analysis of variance revealed a highly significant difference between plant types and among the tested genotypes within each plant type for most of traits. Relatively, genotypes within prostrate type are more variable in thousand seed weight and genotypes within semi-leaf less type are more diverse in plant height, ascochyta blight and lodging severity score. Moderate to high genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV), heritability in broad sense (H2b) and genetic advance as a percent of mean (GAM) combination were recorded from seed yield, thousand seed weight, plant height and number of seeds per plant in both plant types. The path and correlation analysis showed that lodging score had significant negative association and negative direct effect on seed yield in prostrate type. Number of seeds per plant and plant height had both positive direct effects and significant positive association with seed yield consistently in both plant types. Thousand seed weight also showed both positive direct effects and significant positive association with seed yield in semi-leaf less type. Therefore, great emphasis should be given for those traits while making selection of field pea genotypes for high seed yield. However, for the improvement of yield and lodging simultaneously there should be balance between yield and lodging related traits especially in prostrate type. The principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that the first five principal component axes accounted for 71.67 % of the total variability. Generally, the results suggested the possibility of further improvement of seed yield and associated desired traits through selection in both plant types.