GENETIC DIVERGENCE IN LENTIL

Fifty genotypes of lentil (Lens culnaris Medik) were evaluated under eight environments for seed yield and its associated traits. All the genotypes were grouped into seven clusters. The composition of various clusters varied from 2 to 12. Clustering pattern revealed the distribution of the genotypes belonging to the same origin in more than one cluster indicating non-parallism between geographic and genetic diversity. Members of cluster II and VII were highly diverse from each other as these clusters showed maximum inter-cluster distance. The entries of cluster VII showed the highest mean values for number of primary branches^-1, biological yield plant^-1, seed yield plant^-1 and 100-seed weight. The promising genotypes for seed yield, 100-seed weight, pods plant^-1, seeds plant^-1 and early maturity were identified from cluster II and VII on the basis of mean values which could be utilized for hybridization programme for the development of high yielding genotypes.