Vol. 10, Special Issue 1, Part L (2026)

Background: Cowpea is a warm-season vegetable crop cultivated extensively throughout the world. Besides nutritional quality, it also boosts soil through the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen. The main goal of cowpea breeding is to develop consistent high-yielding varieties which show resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. Identifying the best-performing lines and lines that can be used as parents in future crosses are two principal objectives considered in most crop breeding programs. So, to fulfil these objectives, the best-performing lines for the required characteristics are selected based on combining ability and stability by conducting multi-environment trials.

Methods: The present investigations were conducted to determine the extent of combining ability and G X E interaction in cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata). Thirty hybrids were developed by adopting a full diallel mating design. A set of thirty-eight cowpea entries, including six parents, thirty crosses, and two check varieties, GC-3 and GDVC-2, were evaluated at three locations, viz. Navsari, Mangrol and Achhalia used a randomised block design with three replications during Kharif-2017-2018. The mean values of pod yield and the contributing traits of parental lines and their offspring for each replication were used for statistical analysis, including GCA, SCA, and Stability.

Result: The GCA and SCA revealed significant findings, highlighting the intricate interplay of both additive and non-additive gene actions at work. Parents, NCK-15-10, NC-15-41 and NC-15-45 were found to be most promising due to their high-yielding potential and significant general combining ability effects for Pod yield and attributes. The cross-combination NC-15-45 x NCK-15-10, NC-15-45 x NC-15-41 and NCK-15-10 x NC-15-45 recorded high per se performance for green pod yield per plant, resulting from good x good general combiners. Cross NC-15-45 x NCK-15-10 advocated a negative SCA effect for green pod yield per plant. The pooled analysis of variance for different characters revealed significant differences among the genotypes, environments and genotype × environment interaction for all the characters, indicating the existence of considerable variability in the materials studied and between the environments. Parent NCK-15-10 was found average stable for green pod yield per plant, it is remarkable that parent NC-15-45 was found average stable for most of the characters under study. Out of the best five crosses for stability for green pod yield per plant, NC-15-45 x NC-15-41 was found to be average stable and best suited for all the environments for green pod yield per plant. In contrast, based on per se performance, heterosis, combining ability estimates and stability for yield and its components, parent NCK-15-10, NC-15-41, and NC-15-45 were identified as good for green pod yield per plant in cowpea and involvement of these parents will be worthful in future breeding programme. For the development of a high green pod-yielding variety, the pedigree breeding method may be advocated in hybrid NC-15-45 x NCK-15-10 as it exhibited negative and non-significant SCA for green pod yield.