Variability, correlation and path coefficient analysis of cowpea

The present s'udy was conducted to study the variability, correlation and path coefficient analysis of 68 cowpea accessions. The results of the.experiment revealed that wide range of variations were present for days to 50% flowering, duration of flowering, number of racemes per plant, days to pod maturity, pod length, pod width, number of pods per peduncle, number of pods per plant, dry matter content of edible pod, 100 seeds weight and yield per plant.. Both genotypic and phenotypic variances were found significant in all the traits. Phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) was little higher than the genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) for all the traits. • The low differences between the phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variations. indicated low environmental influences on the expression of the characters. Correlation coefficient indicated that yield per plant had significant and positive association with duration of flowering, number of racemes per plant, number of pods per plant and pod length. Path coefficient analysis revealed that duration of flowering, number of racemes per plant, number of pods per plant and pod length also showed positive direct effect on yield per plant of cowpea