Coefficient analysis and association between morpho-agronomical characters in common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.)

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.