www.IndianJournals.com Members Copy, Not for Commercial Sale Downloaded From IP - 14.139.52.4 on dated 3-Jan-2017 Journal of Functional and Environmental Botany Volume 6, Number 2, November, 2016, 114-122 DOI: 10.5958/2231-1750.2016.00017.2 Journal of Functional and Environmental Botany 114 Research Article Genetic Variability Studies of Diverse Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) Genotypes Ramnarayan Khandait 1 , P.K. Jain 2 , Sunil Prajapati 3 * and Pritibala Solanki 4 1 Scholar, 2 Former Univ. Prof. and Head, Department of Horticulture, Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi VishwaVidyalaya, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India 3 Senior Research Fellow, Project Coordinating Unit (S&N), JNKVV Campus Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh 4 Agriculture Field Officer, UCO Bank Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, India (*Corresponding author) email id: *prajapatisunil4960@gmail.com; 1 ramkhandait96@gmail.com; 2 jainpkjanu@rediffmail.com; 4 priti04solanki@gmail.com ABSTRACT The experimental material was comprised of 15 genotypes of cowpea. The analysis of variance revealed highly significant variance for all the traits depicting greater variability in the existing material. The Phenotypic coefficient variance and Genotypic coefficient variance were highest for characters viz., number of flower cluster per plant (49.79% and 47.57%), number of pods per plant (35.69% and 34.24%), number of pods per cluster (27.86%and 25.44%), number of branches at 30 DAS (24.94 %), pod weight (24.81% and 23.79%), and pod length (23.83% and 23.62%). Heritability estimates were observed very high for pod length (98.29%), number of pods per plant (92.04%), pod weight (91.98%), number of flower clusters per plant (91.28%) and pod width (91.78%). The highest estimate of genetic advance as percentage of mean was recorded for number of flower clusters per plant (93.63%) followed by number of pods per plant (67.67%), pod length (48.24%), number of pods per cluster (47.84%), pod weight (47.01%), pod width (38.17%), number of flowers per cluster (36.49%), number of branches after 30 days of sowing (21.68%), pod yield per plot (21.55%), pod yield per ha (21.55%) and pod yield per plant (20.86%). Keywords: Cowpea, Genetic advance, Genetic variability, Heritability, Pod yield INTRODUCTION Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L) Walp.] is a kind of vegetable legume that belongs to the family Papilionaceae and sub-family Fabaceae. Immature cowpea green pods are commonly referred to as southern pea, black eye pea, crowder pea and lobia. Cowpea plant is herbaceous, warm season, annually requires temperature of at least 18°C throughout all stage of development and have an optimal growing temperature of about 28°C. Cowpea is required for growth and maintenance of body; green pod of cowpea contains 85 g moisture, 3 g protein, 1 g minerals, 2.0 g fiber, 8.0 g carbohydrates, 72 mg calcium, 59 mg phosphorus, 2 mg iron, 0.09mg riboflavin and 0.07 mg thiamin per 100 g of edible portion (Anonymous, 2011). The development of cultivars with early maturity, acceptable grain quality, resistance to some important diseases and pests has significantly increased the yield and cultivars area. The yield being a complex trait is influenced by many other important yield contributing characters controlled by polygene and also environment factors. Therefore, in these characters, observed variability is the sum total of hereditary effects of concerned genes in addition to the influence of the environment. The success of most crop improvement programmes largely depends upon the genetic variability and heritability of desirable traits. The magnitude and type of genetic variability help the breeder to determine the selection criteria and breeding scheme to be used for