Abstract:
Pulses are important food
sources for human consumption. In an
attempt to study the associations between
common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.)
morpho-agronomical traits, twelve
genotypes and inbred lines were evaluated
in a randomized complete block design
(RCBD) with three replications in 2010-
2011 crop season. Seed yield and 20 other
morpho-agronomic characters were
recorded. Analysis of variance (ANOVA)
revealed a significant (p ≤ 0.01) difference
among genotypes with respect to almost all
traits. Correlation analysis demonstrated
that seed yield had a strong positive
correlation with both seed number per plant
and seed number per pod, suggesting the
usefulness of these traits in common bean
breeding programs. Step-wise regression
analysis pointed out that the pod weight,
seed number per pod and 100 seed weight
contributed to the seed yield prediction,
whereas other traits did not contributed to
the seed yield prediction. These traits
explained almost 99% of total seed yield
variations. Path analysis showed that the
maximum direct and positive effect was
related to pod weight. Furthermore, factor
analysis revealed that four factors, explained
almost 71% of the total variance. The results
of this research showed that biologic yield,
pod weight, straw weight, number of pod
per plant and seed number per plant were
the most closely related traits to the seed
yield.
