Cluster bean is rich in dietary fibre, potassium and folate which protect the heart from various cardiovascular complications. It is a reservoir of different amino acids including glutamine, arginine, aspartic acid and leucine.

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The study was conducted on 56 cluster bean genotypes to study the linear combination of characters associated with pod yield. Correlation, path analysis and selection index were studied for pod yield using the characters viz., plant height at final harvest (cm), days to 50% flowering, average weight of 50 pods (g), pod length (cm) and protein content of pods. The genotypic correlation coefficients were higher than phenotypic correlation coefficients for all the characters studied. Plant height displayed high positive direct effect on pod yield per plant. Average weight of 50 pods, pod length and protein content of pods exhibited low positive direct effects on pod yield per plant. The index value for each genotype was determined and the genotypes were ranked accordingly. The highest value was recorded in check Pusa Navbahar followed by MDU-1, Chitra Gold, IC-51063 and IC-522421. These genotypes were identified to be genetically superior.

Ab s t r a c tThe study was carried out to assess the genetic divergence among 56 cluster bean genotypes using Mahalanobis D 2 . Fifty-six genotypes were grouped into 8 clusters based on 11 characters. The intra-cluster distances were seen to be lower than the inter-cluster distances. The maximum inter-cluster distance was noticed between cluster VI and VII whereas, inter-cluster D 2 value was least between cluster I and V. The maximum intra-cluster distance was observed in cluster IV. Clusters V, VII and VIII had only one genotype each and hence intra-cluster distance was 0.00. The per cent contribution towards genetic diversity was maximum in 100 seed weight (52.08%) followed by the protein content of pods (45.19%). On the basis of inter-cluster distances observed, the genotypes with specific characters can be utilized for the hybridization programme.