SELECTION OF ELITE SOYBEAN (Glycine max L. Merrill) GENOTYPES BASED ON MORPHO-AGRONOMIC TRAITS

Abstract

The present experiment was conducted by using eighteen advanced genotypes of Soybean (Glycine max L. Merrill) for selecting most promising genotypes at the experimental field of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University (SAU), Sher-e- Bangla Nagar, Dhaka-1207 during the period from mid-December, 2018 to mid- April, 2019 based on some morphological traits. The experiment consisted of one factor with three replications. The results indicated that the genotypes differed regarding all the characters studied. The phenotypic variance and coefficient of variation were higher than the genotypic variance and coefficient of variation in all the characters studied. Moderate to high heritability was observed for all characters except leaf length and number of primary branches per plant. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance in percent mean were observed for germination percentage, days to 50% flowering, plant height, number of pod per plant, number of seeds per plant and thousand seed weight. The characters germination percentage, days to 50% flowering, plant height, leaf length, number of pod per plant, number of seeds per pod and number of seeds per plant showed positive direct effect on yield. Therefore, importance had to be given for these characters in further breeding program to improve soybean yield. All the genotypes were grouped into four clusters having 5, 2, 6 and 5 genotypes, respectively. Cluster III comprised the maximum number (6) of genotypes followed by cluster I(5) and IV(5). The highest inter cluster distance (26.186) was observed between the cluster I and II. Likewise highest distant genotypes were G11(AGS-205) and G18 (BINA SOYBEAN 3) (1.362). Among the characters studied days to 50% flowering, number of primary branches per plant, number of seeds per pod, thousands seed weight were the important component characters having higher contribution to the genetic divergence of soybean. As a result, these traits could be emphasized during selection of parents for hybridization.