www.tjprc.org editor@tjprc.org GENETIC DIVERGENCE STUDIES IN COWPEA JOGDHANDE SRINIVAS 1 , VIJAY. S. KALE 2 , P. K. NAGRE 3 & SAMRAT MESHRAM 4 1 Research Scholar Department of Horticulture, Dr. PDKV., Akola, Maharashtra, India 2 Associate professor, Department of Horticulture, Dr.PDKV, Akola, Maharashtra, India 3 Head of Department Horticulture, Dr.PDKV, Akola, Maharashtra. India 4 Department of Agriculture Botany, Dr. PDKV., Akola, Maharashtra, India ABSTRACT The present investigation entitled "Genetic divergence studies in cowpea” was carried out during summer season of the year 2014.The field experiment was carried out at Main Garden, Department of Horticulture, Dr. PDKV, Akola. The study was undertaken on Thirty genotypes of cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp] were investigated to understand the extent of genetic diversity through sixteen traits. Mahalanobis’s D 2 analysis established the presence of wide genetic diversity among these genotypes was grouped into six clusters. The cluster I was largest and consisted of 21 genotypes followed by cluster III of 5 genotypes and clusters II, IV,V and VI consisting of only one genotype each. Maximum inter cluster D 2 value was observed between VI (6987.85) and III (4806.87), indicating that the genotypes included in these clusters had maximum divergence. The diversity among the genotypes measured by inter-cluster distance was adequate for improvement of cowpea by hybridization and selection. The genotypes included in these diverse clusters may be used as promising parents for hybridization to obtain better segregants in cowpea KEYWORDS: Cowpea, Genetic Divergence, D 2 Statistics, Clusters, Genotypes. Received: Mar 23, 2016; Accepted: Apr 06, 2016; Published: Apr 19, 2016; Paper Id.: IJASRJUN2016013 INTRODUCTION Cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.)Walp] is an important leguminous vegetable crop mainly grown both in kharif and spring summer season crop in most parts of India. It is native to West Africa (Vavilov.,1951; but (Steele,1976) suggested Ethiopia as the primary and Africa as the secondary centres of diversity. The total area of beans in India is 37.54 million hectares with production of 1370.21 million tonnes (Anon., 2014). Cowpea plays an important role in Indian diet. Green tender pods form an excellent nutritious vegetable and have the potential to solve the protein problem of human diet. It is also known as ‘vegetable meat’ (Singh,1983). Average yield of cowpea is very low in India, and year-to-year variation in yield is also remarkably high. This poor yield may be due to unavailability of high yielding and stable genotypes along with appropriate advance agronomic management practices. Cowpea is warm season, annual herbaceous legume crop and growth habit is pole type. It has strong tap root system, stem may be green or pigmented, leaves are alternate, trifoliate with one symmetrical terminal leaflet and two asymmetrical leaflets. It is commonly known as crowder pea, black-eyed pea, lobia, barbatti, chawali, southern pea, long yard bean, asparagus bean, snake bean and china bean. Itis one of the most important legume vegetable crops commonly grown throughout India for its long, tender green pods as vegetable and seeds as pulse. It is also grown for silage, hay, pasture, all type of struck and as a source of protein especially lysine. Green pod of Original Article International Journal of Agricultural Science and Research (IJASR) ISSN(P): 2250-0057; ISSN(E): 2321-0087 Vol. 6, Issue 3, Jun 2016, 97-104 © TJPRC Pvt. Ltd