Vol. 9, Special Issue 8, Part O (2025)

Genetic diversity studies for soybean genotypes were conducted at ZARS, Ganeshkhind, Pune during kharif 2024 season. Total 40 genotypes were evaluated for 12 different characters during the investigation in Randomized Block Design (RBD) with three replications using D² Statistics. The Mahalanobis D² analysis revealed considerable genetic variability among the evaluated genotypes. The forty genotypes were analysed and divided into seven clusters. Cluster I was the largest cluster with 27 genotypes, followed by Cluster III which had 8 genotypes. Remaining Clusters II, IV, V, VI, VII had contain only one genotype each indicating wide divergence from other clusters. Cluster III showed the maximum intra-cluster distance (8.56). The maximum inter-cluster distance was observed in between the Cluster IV and cluster VI (20.79) indicated the heterogenous behaviour. The minimum inter-cluster distance was noticed in between Cluster II and Cluster V (5.58) indicated proximity among the genotype with each other. The character secondary branches per plant contributed maximum to the genetic divergence. According to the D² statistics genotype JS-SH-93-01 was top ranking for five characters out of twelve characters. Similarly, genotypes JS-72-44, MACS-1340, MACS-124, MACS-450, DS-228, AUKS-212, RSC-1172, KDS-344 and JS-SH-93-01 can be employed for future breeding programs based on the examination of divergence classes and mean performance.