Genetic variability parameters of yield and quality attributes in vegetable pea (Pisum sativum L.)

A field experiment was conducted to study the genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance of 24 morphological traits and three biochemical traits in 47 genotypes of vegetable pea. The analysis of variance showed significant differences among genotypes for all the characters under study. Highest coefficient of variation was observed for number of podding nodes per plant and highest phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variation were recorded for seed yield per plant followed by number of primary branches per plant and green pod yield per plant. Very high heritability estimates were observed for days to last pod picking (97.63) followed by plant height (97.40), days to first pod picking (96.78) and shelling percentage (95.56) while genetic advance as percentage of mean was found high for seed yield per plant (65.95) and primary branches per plant (58.40). High heritability along with moderate to high genetic advance was predicted in case of pod weight and number of seeds per pod, which indicated the role of additive gene action for the inheritance of these traits and therefore, selection could be used for improving these traits