The relationship of pod wall proportion with seed yield and its inheritance in mungbean [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek]

Pattern of dry matter accumulation and its partitioning remained one of the major challenges in food legume improvement. Pods of most legumes are characterized by a high proportion of pod wall varing from 20 to 40% among 49 genotypes grown over three environments. High amount of dry matter is being wasted in the form of pod wall, which if properly mobilized, can contribute towards higher seed yield even without any increase in total dry matter. The present work was designed firstly to study the relationship of pod wall with seed yield and then inheritance of pod wall proportion was studied using six parent half diallel cross including parents. Twenty one entries including six parents significantly differ in proportion of pod wall, pod wall weight and seed yield at first and second picking and seed yield per plant. Correlations and path coefficient analysis revealed negative but insignificant correlation between proportion of pod wall and seed yield and direct effect of this trait on seed yield was also negative. The analysis of variance of combining ability revealed significant variances for both gca and sea. Parents A143, A20 and A152 showed negative gca effects which is desirable to reduce pod wall proportion while the other three parents, A8-2, A123 and A160-2, showed positive gca effect. Few crosses showed highly significant negative sca effect.