Assessment of Variability of Lentil Genotypes for Agronomic Traits using Multivariate Analyses

Abstract

Lentil (Lens culinaris), with its ability for nitrogen fixation, maintaining soil moisture and limiting soil erosion helps in increasing soil fertility. In order to compare and classify of 14 lentil genotypes, an experiment was carried out in the randomized complete block design with three replications during the cropping year of 2011-2012. Analysis of variance indicated remarkable diversities among genotypes under study and significant differences were obtained for seed yield, biological yield, 100-grain weight, number of the pod with couple seed and rain efficiency. Mean comparisons also showed the genotype G10 was the best genotypes for seed yield, biological yield, the pod with couple seed and rain efficiency, so this genotype is advisable for culture by farmers. As the per principal component analysis, first five principal components expressed 83% of total variation in which PC I, PC II, PC III, PC IV & PC V accounted for 41%, 14%, 12%, 8% and 6% of total variation, respectively. Cluster analysis, based on the traits studied, using euclidean distance following Ward's method with euclidean distance divided the genotypes into three groups and the maximum distance was between cluster I and III. Thus the genetically diverged genotypes of the clusters could be used as the parent in hybridization program to get desirable genotypes. It can be concluded that there is remarkable genetic variability among studied lentil genotypes, which could be utilized in the screening of desirable parents and genotypes for lentil breeding programs.