Tropical Plant Research

M. T. Hasan and A. C. Deb*

Abstract:
This study was conducted to investigate direct and indirect effects and selection index in eight genotypes of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). The experiment was carried out in the University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh during the consecutive three crop seasons viz., 2009-2010, 2010-2011 and 2011-2012. The direct and indirect effect analysis have been done based on seed weight per plant (seed yield) as a dependent variable. In this study, number of seeds per plant had maximum positive direct effect on seed yield followed by days to first flower and plant height at first flower at genotypic level while at phenotypic level, plant height at maximum flower had the highest positive direct effect on yield followed by plant weight at harvest and number of pods per plant. These results confirmed that these characters had maximum contribution in determining yield. In discriminant function study, high expected genetic gain was observed when two characters viz., number of secondary branches at first flower and number of primary branches at maximum flower were in a combination than three or more. Again, number of secondary branches at first flower also had positive direct effect on seed yield and number of primary branches at maximum flower had significant positive total effect on seed yield. The study hereby suggestes that the two traits (i.e. number of secondary branches at first flower and number of primary branches at maximum flower) may be given more emphasis while selecting high yielding chickpea genotypes.