Correlation and Path Coefficient Analysis Among Seed Yield and Yield Related Traits of Ethiopian Chickpea (Cicer arietinumL.) Landraces

Abstract

An experiment was under taken on 202 new chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) accessions and two released varieties to determine the association of different characters with seed yield, direct and indirect influence of characters towards yield and yield contributing traits. The experiment was planted at Sirinkaand Jari test stations under rain fed condition in 2016 using alpha lattice design with three replications. Data were collected on yield and yield related traits. Analysis of variance showed highly significant differences (P<0.001) among the tested genotypes. The correlation of grain yield with biomass (rg= 0.71 and rph= 0.72) and with harvest index (rg = 0.52 and rph= 0.54) was positive and highly significant both at genotypic and phenotypic levels. In addition, its association with pod filling period, plant height, secondary branches and hundred seed weight was positive but non-significant both at genotypic and phenotypic levels. Path coefficient analysis at genotypic level showed that among the fifteen causal (independent) traits; biomass (0.84), harvest index (0.69), pod length (9.73), days to pod setting (0.024), pod filing period (0.020), and number of pods per plant (0.019) had positive directly influence on grain yield. Despite the days to flowering, plant height and hundred seed weight had positive genotypic correlation with grain yield, and their direct effects on grain yield were negative. This implies that the observed positive correlations of these traits with grain yield were due to their indirect positive effects on grain yield through primary branches, number of seeds per pod, biomass, pod length, canopy width and harvest index. Therefore, future selection of chickpea genotypes should be focused on traits which had positive correlation and direct effect on grain yield at both genotypic and phenotypic levels for obtaining high yield in chickpea breeding program.