Vol. 8, Special Issue 12, Part N (2024)

In the present investigation twenty-two germplasm were evaluated in two consecutive years for eleven parameters at Instructional Farm, Sasya Shyamala Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational & Research Institute, Arapanch, Sonarpur, Kolkata-700150 to study the genetic variability and diversity in maize. The experiment was carried out in randomized block design with three replications. The genotype RM-6002 showed highest mean values for number of seeds per row, 100 seed weight & grain yield per plant. This genotype also showed high shelling percentage as well. The magnitude of PCV was higher than that of GCV for all the characters. The ratio of GCV and PCV indicated that some of the characters were influenced by the environment. The genotypes were grouped into six cluster. Among all the cluster, cluster III was the largest cluster comprising of seven genotypes followed by cluster II and VI comprising four genotypes in each. The relative contribution of individual character towards the divergence revealed that grain yield per plant (80.08%) was the highest contributor to the total genetic divergence followed by ear height (7.35%) and plant height (6.92%). Maximum inter cluster distance was observed between cluster V and II (85.57) followed by cluster V and IV (61.59) and cluster III and II (56.16) indicating that these cluster pairs were most divergent. Thus, on the basis of inter-cluster distance, cluster means, characters with high contribution to D² values and by comparing the mean values of the all the genotypes, this study revealed that the genotypes belong to the cluster V, IV and III will be used for further breeding programme.