GENETIC VARIATION AND INTER RELATIONSHIP OF YIELD AND ITS COMPONENT TRAITS IN LENTIL (LENS CULINARIS MEDIK.)

Genetic variation and interrelationship among twelve characters were studied in lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) by taking 23 genetically diverse genotypes. The PCV was generally higher that the GCV for all the characters but in many cases, the two values differed only slightly. The lowest values were shown by days to maturity, number of seeds per pod and protein content and the highest values were shown by harvest index followed by grain yield per plant and 1000 seed weight. The heritability estimates ranged from 56% for number of seeds per pod to 95% for 1000 seed weight. The expected genetic advance expressed as a percentage of mean, varied from 5.36 for number of seeds per pod to 57.09 for harvest index. The grain yield per plant showed strong and positive association with seed weight, number of pods per plant and harvest index at the both genotypic and phenotypic levels. The highest positive direct effect belonged to the number of clusters per plant, followed by seed weight, and number of pods per clusters. However, the positive direct effect on number of clusters per plant on grain yield was partially counter balanced by its negative indirect effect via 1000 seed weight.