Correlation and Path Coefficient Analysis for Seed Yield and Yield Related Traits in Soybean (<i>Glycine max</i> (L.)) Genotypes

Abstract

Soybean is a very interesting food crops and several production constraints are accountable for the low productivity including poor soils fertility, lack of early maturing or drought tolerant variety, lack of high yielding varieties, disease and pest. Therefore experiment was conducted to assess the extent of genetic variability and traits associations in soybean genotypes for grain yield and its related components and thereby generate information as well as identify superior genotypes for further improvement program. A total of thirty six soybean genotypes were tested using simple lattice design with two replications at Fedis during 2018 cropping season. Most of the traits showed positive correlations among themselves both at phenotypic and genotypic levels. Seed yield had highly significant and positive genotypic and phenotypic correlation with primary number of branches/plant, number of pods/plant, number of seeds/pod and plant height, indicating that simultaneous improvement of grain yields with the associated traits is favorable. Plant height exerted the highest genotypic (0.74) and phenotypic (0.54) direct effect on seed yield, and followed by hundred seeds weight and number of pods/plant showed higher genotypic direct effect on seed yield. This suggested that attention should be given for these traits mainly for direct and indirect selection for variety development.