Vol. 9, Special Issue 12, Part U (2025)

The study aimed to investigate the genetic variability on the basis of genetical and morphological traits in Cassia tora Linn. The experiment was conducted during the kharif 2024 at the Research Cum Instructional Farm at Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, Chhattisgarh. Sixty-five accessions along with check were evaluated in a Randomized Complete Block Design with two replications. Cassia tora Linn is an important annual medicinal legume belonging to the family Leguminosae, widely distributed in tropical regions and valued for its galactomannan-rich seeds having therapeutic properties. Despite, its economic potential, systematic genetic improvement of this crop is limited. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to evaluate genetic variability, heritability, genetic advance, and genetic divergence for yield and its associated traits in Cassia tora. Observations were recorded on fifteen morphological and yield attributing traits for genetic parameters such as genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation (GCV and PCV), heritability (broad sense), genetic advance and genetic diversity were estimated. The results indicated that PCV higher than GCV values, indicating influence of environmental for the expressions traits. The highest PCV and GCV was reported for number of pods per plant (43.76% and 99.70%), days to flowering (35.51% and 97.16%), number of tertiary branches per plant (36.15% and 95.37%), number of secondary branches per plant (35.99% and 95.92%), number of seeds per pod (24.33% and 81.64%) respectively. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance was observed in number of pod/plant (99.701 and 43.763) for these traits indicated the predominance of additive gene action, suggesting their suitability for direct selection. Cluster analysis showed highest inter-cluster distance between Cluster V (CG.CT-53) and Cluster VI (CG.CT-56), indicating their potential use as parents in hybridization programs for developing greater frequency of better segregants for developing new varieties.