Assessment of genetic variability for yield and quality traits in groundnut genotypes

Twenty groundnut genotypes were evaluated for 14 characters to study the genetic variability parameters, correlation coefficient and path analysis. Analysis of variance showed highly significant differences among genotypes for all the studied characters indicating that adequate variability was found among the genotypes studied for these characters. Days to 50% flowering, number of pods/plant, 100 pod weight, 100 sound mature kernel and sound mature kernel had high heritability coupled with high genetic advance as per cent of mean and medium to high genotypic coefficient of variation indicating selection would be rewarding for improving these traits because of greater control of additive gene effects, while the traits like primary branches per plant, pod yield and kernel yield had moderate GCV and heritability along with high genetic advance as per cent of mean revealed heritable component of genetic variance playing greater role in expression of these traits and selection would be effective. For seed size and quality related traits, medium heritability along with low genetic advance as per cent of mean was observed for KL/KW ratio, protein content, oil content and sugar content indicating high influence of environment on expression of these traits. Genotypic correlation coefficients revealed that pod yield had significant and highly positive correlations with plant height, primary branches per plant, pods per plant, 100 pod weight, 100 sound mature kernel, kernel yield and harvest index, while negative and significant for days to 50% flowering. 100 sound mature kernel and pods per plant had high positive direct effect and also highly significant positive correlation with pod yield. Therefore, selection for both component traits may helpful in identifying genotypes with high pod yield in groundnut.