Genetic Variability and Heritability of Growth and Yield Characters of Cowpea Germplasm under Gaya Sudan Savannah

Abstract

Field experiment was conducted at Teaching and Research Farm of Kano University of Science and Technology, Wudil located at Gaya Sudan Savannah agro ecological zone of Nigeria to determine the genetic variability and heritability of some quantitative characters of different Cowpea Germplasm. Five (5) Cowpea cultivars were sown in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with 3 replications.Number of days to germination, days to branching, days to 50% flowering, days to pod setting, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod and 100 seeds weight were determined and recorded as growth and yield parameters. The result showed a high significant variability for all the tested traits except days to flowering and days to branching. All the PCV values were higher than the GCV values for each character and showed similar pattern of changing over the characters. The highest heritability was recorded in favor of hundred seeds weight. Based on the results obtained above it is concluded that Genotypic variation can be used for effective selection based on phenotypic expression and heritability value of a trait.