Legume Research

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Research Article

Legume Research, volume 42 issue 6 (december 2019) : 757-762

Agronomic performance and genetic variability of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) Accessions

D.K. Nkoana, Abe Shegro Gerrano, E.T. Gwata
1Agricultural Research Council Vegetable and Ornamental Plants, Private bag X 293, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa.

  • Submitted28-08-2018|

  • Accepted06-05-2019|

  • First Online 14-08-2019|

  • doi 10.18805/LR-450

Cite article:- Nkoana D.K., Gerrano Shegro Abe, Gwata E.T. (2019). Agronomic performance and genetic variability of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) Accessions. Legume Research. 42(6): 757-762. doi: 10.18805/LR-450.

ABSTRACT

Cowpea is a drought tolerant food legume but yields are generally low in South Africa due to non-availability of improved varieties. The current study was undertaken to evaluate agronomic performance of cowpea germplasm and select the candidate accessions for breeding population and cultivation by small-scale farmers in South Africa. A randomized complete block design with three replications was used for the experiment. Data were collected on the agronomic traits including days to 50% maturity, days to 95% maturity, hundred seed weight, leaf area index, number of branches, number of internodes, number of seeds per plant, plant height, number of pods per plant, pod length, dry biomass weight per plant, grain yield per plant and grain yield per hectare. Highly significant differences were observed among the accessions for all traits. The grain yield per hectare was correlated positively and significantly with number of pods per plant and grain yield per plant showing a scope for simultaneous improvement of yield and yield related traits. Principal Component biplot revealed that accessions Acc2024, Acc5352, Acc2355, Acc4565, Glenda and L-cwp3 were the most genetically distinct accessions and can serve as potential candidate parental lines for hybridization to achieving transgressive segregation population in breeding programmes.

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