Combining ability in desi chickpea

Abstract

Diallel analysis was made for yield and other quantitative traits in desi chickpea. The gca and sca components suggested predominance of additive gene effect for plant height and 100 grain-weight and non-additive gene effect for harvest index. Both additive and non-additive gene effects were important for number of branches per plant, pods per plant, grains per pod, grain yield per plant and biological yield per plant. RSG 897 was the best general combiner for grain yield per plant, pods per plant and biological yield per plant whereas PBG 204 was found to be the best general combiner for plant height, number of branches per plant, pods per plant and 100-grain weight. Two crosses, namely RSG 897 x FG 897 and GPF 2 x GL 93011 were the best combinations for grain yield per plant. The former cross also exhibited high specific combining ability for biological yield and pods per plant.