Present investigation was carried out during autumn winter season 2013-14 and 2014-15 at the Vegetable Research Centre of GBPUA&T, Pantnagar with 43 genotypes including 10 lines, 3 testers and 30 F1’s of brinjal. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with three replications. The observations were recorded for 11 characters. Variances due to testers were greater than variances due to lines for most of the characters. The estimates of General Combining Ability (GCA) effect indicated that PB71, BB85, PB66, Swarn Syamli and DBL02 were best general combiner for earliness (days to 50% flowering), whereas the best specific cross was BRLVAR6 × DBL02. For weight of marketable fruits per plant PB66, SMB115, LC7, BRLVAR6 were best general combiners and SMB115 × DBL02, PB66 × Pant Samrat and IBWL 2001-1 × Pant Rituraj were best specific combiners. Pant Rituraj was found best general combining effect for plant height, fruit diameter, weight of marketable fruits per plant, number of unmarketable fruits per plant, total yield per plant and total yield per hectare. Pant Samrat showed good General Combining Ability (GCA) effects for number of primary branches per plant, number of marketable fruits per plant, weight of unmarketable fruits per plant and total number of fruits per plant. DBL02 was recorded best general combiner for earliness and fruit length. SMB115 and PB 66 were best general combiners for most of the yield characters. SMB115 × DBL02, PB66 × Pant Samrat and IBWL2001-1 × Pant Rituraj were showed highest Specific Combining Ability (SCA) effect for most of the characters. Therefore, these cross combinations could be commercially exploited for higher yield.

Background: Dolichos bean is an important leguminous vegetable having a wide range of variation in different quantitative characters. Assessing genetic diversity among dolichos bean accessions can ensure development of suitable high-yielding and adapted varieties with suitable maturity period. Methods: Fifteen genotypes were evaluated for different characters in Dolichos bean at two locations of Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University viz. Vegetable Research Farm, Pusa and Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Birauli, Samastipur, Bihar during the year 2018-19 and pooled data was analyzed. The genotypes were evaluated for genetic variability and genetic divergence for 14 characters. For the assessment of genetic diversity among the fifteen genotypes of dolichos bean, Mahalanobis (D2) statistic (Mahalanobis, 1936) was used, following the procedure given by Rao, 1952. Grouping of genotypes into clusters was done using Tocher’s method as described by Rao, 1952. Result: Phenotypic Coefficient of Variation (PCV) was slightly higher than Genotypic Coefficient of Variation (GCV) for all the characters indicated that the characters were less influenced by environment. The characters having high heritability and high genetic advance include harvesting duration, number of pods per plant, pod length, pod diameter, individual pod weight, weight of seeds per pod, 100 fresh green seed weight, pod yield and percent incidence of yellow mosaic virus. Therefore, selection for above characters is highly effective. Genetic diversity analysis evaluated that all genotypes could be placed into 6 clusters. Genotypes grouped in Cluster III and I have highest mean value for all characters as well as highest inter-cluster distance.