Assessment of the Genetic Diversity in Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) Genotypes for Yield and its Attributing Traits Using D2 Statistics

The forty-five genotypes of groundnut were evaluated at Field Experimentation Centre of the Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Naini Agricultural Institute, SHUATS, Prayagraj (U.P.) during kharif, seasons of 2021-22 and 2022-23 in four environments condition of Randomized Block Design with three replications. Observations were recorded on 17 yield and its attributing characters. Analysis of variance revealed the presence of significant amount of variability among the groundnut genotypes. The findings of the ANOVA observed a highly significant variation (p ≤ 0.01) for all the traits evaluated. Maximum genotypic coefficient of variation (23.12) and phenotypic coefficient of variation (25.92) was recorded for number of branches per plant. The topmost heritability was recorded for hundred pod weight (98.70%) followed by days to maturity (98.60%) with genetic advance hundred pod weight (41.47%) and days to maturity (24.34%). The traits with least influenced by the environment as well as governed by the additive genes and direct selection for improvement of such traits can be beneficial. Analysis of genetic diversity using Mahalanobis' D2 statistic was carried out in 45 genotypes. These genotypes were grouped into seven clusters. Cluster IV had the maximum number of genotypes. The analysis further indicated that the genotypes of common geographic origin or same location were grouped into different clusters which suggested a lack of relationship between genetic and geographic diversity. Plant height showed relative contribution was the highest 16.67%, then followed by hundred pod weight (14.95%) and pod yield per plant (8.59%).