Evaluation of Cowpea Germplasm by using Agro-Morphological Characters

Abstract

Background: Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) is the most important and diverse grain legume crop grown in tropics and subtropics. Assessment of local and regional plant genotypes is important for identifying diversity among germplasm and for crop improvement. The objective of present study was to characterize cowpea accessions collected from various households of western Maharashtra, India by using morphological traits.Methods: The field experiments were conducted on cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) at BAIF-CRS Urulikanchan, during Kharif 2018 and summer 2019. The experiments were arranged in row design with minimum 10 individuals of each accessions spaced at 60 x 30 cm. Recommended package of practices were adopted throughout experimentation. Result: Traits such as semi-prostrate habit (41.9 percent), determinate growth (77.4 percent), straight pod (51.6 percent), smooth seed (71.0 percent), elliptic shape (67.7 percent) and yellowish-white seed colour (37.6 percent) were dominant in studied accessions. Time for first flowering ranged from 28 to 65 days; pod length ranged between 9.60 cm to 27.48 cm; seeds per pod observed between 7.20 to 16.40; 100-seed weight ranged between 12.00 to 36.00 g. Analysis of variance showed that all the characters were highly significant among the accessions. Results revealed that studied accessions are valuable germplasm for future breeding programs.