Assessment of Genetic Divergence for Yield and Yield Related Traits in Chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) Germplasm

Abstract

Evaluation of 35 Chilli genotypes in two seasons during Kharif, 2019 and Rabi, 2019-20 was taken up with an objective to estimate the genetic divergence for yield and yield attributing traits. In respect of per plant fruit yield , Only one genotype IC-347044 (0.82 kg) recorded significantly higher value than the best check LCA-625 (0.65 kg). The genetic divergence of genotypes was estimated using Mahalanobis’s D2 statistics. The genotypes were grouped into six different clusters, among which cluster I was the largest comprising of 16 genotypes. Results revealed that the character capsanthin content contributed maximum (48.91%) towards diversity followed by ascorbic acid (47.23%), capsaicin content (1.85 %), number of fruits per plant (1.18%), fruit weight (0.67%) and chlorophyll content (0.17%). The inter cluster D2 values revealed that the highest inter cluster generalized distance (4626.16) was between cluster IV and cluster V and the lowest (619.86) was between cluster I and cluster III. The genotypes belonging to the cluster IV (IC-526448, EC-378632, IC-561622) and V (IC-394819, IC-570408, EC-378688, IC-528442) should be crossed to develop superior chilli hybrids with yield and its component traits through heterosis breeding.