INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY

Volume 17, No. 04, Month JULY, Year 2021, Pages 1631 - 1650

Assessment of genetic diversity in cowpea (vigna unguiculata) genotypes in southern ethiopia based on morpho-agronomic traits.

Yasin, G., Elias, U., Walelign, W. and Hussein, M.

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A field experiment was conducted at Gofa research station in the main crop season of 2016/17 to estimate the genetic diversity among cowpea genotypes based on morphoagronomic traits. Thirty-six cowpea genotypes were tested using a simple lattice design. Shannon diversity Index value ranged from 0.633 to 0.953 with a mean of 0.84 confirmed that there was a high degree of deviation in the qualitative traits among cowpea genotypes. Analysis of variance for 14 quantitative traits showed significant differences (P < 0.05) among the cowpea genotypes. Yield and other agronomic traits showed high to moderate phenotypic (PCV) and genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV). On the basis of cluster analysis, thirty-six cowpea genotypes, based on the 14 quantitative traits, were grouped into 6 clusters. I, II, IV, V, III and VI, each with 9, 8,7,7,3 and 2 genotypes, respectively. The highest inter-cluster distance was noticed between cluster III and VI (4265.10) followed by cluster III and V (3569.30), cluster IV and VI (3365.38) suggesting wide diversity between them. Cluster III was found to be promising for yield and its major component traits, while the genotypes in Cluster VI had genotypes for earlier flowering and maturity.ETC...

Keywords

Cowpea, Cluster analysis, Shannon Weaver diversity index

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