Character association study among components of green fodder yield in ricebean

Abstract

Ricebean has been categorized as underutilized crop despite its nutritive quality and fodder yielding ability benign higher than other legumes of Vigna family. In addition to its nutritive value, this crop is fairly resistant to drought and flood conditions. The purpose of this paper is to provide important traits for direct selection of fodder yielding ricebean genotypes through analysis of phenotypic and genotypic association and path coefficient. In the present study, the degree of association between yield and yield contributing attributes were estimated in 85 germplasm lines for nineteen quantitative traits so that direct selection of the promising traits may be effective for the improvement of yield potential of future genotypes of ricebean. Correlation studies indicated that green fodder yield per plant was significantly and positively associated with green fodder yield per day, number of leaves per plant, number of branches per plant, crude protein yield per plant, crude protein yield per plant per day, dry matter yield per plant, dry matter yield per plant per day, leaf stem ratio and plant height at both genotypic and phenotypic levels. Path coefficient revealed that green fodder yield per plant per day has highest direct effect and significant positive correlation towards yield. Other traits, crude protein yield per plant, dry matter yield per plant per day, days to 50% flowering, days to flower initiation and plant height were also found to be important fodder yield indicators in ricebean.