Genetic diversity and importance of agronomic traits in cowpea genotypes in conditions of low technological level in Piaui¹

ABSTRACT

The aim of the study was to evaluate the genetic diversity, agronomic traits and promising combinations of cowpea genotypes under conditions of low technological level in the region south of Piaui. The experiment was conducted in rainfed condition in the experimental area of the Federal Institute of Piauí, Uruçuí - PI, in DBC with four replications. We used 10 genotypes of commercial cultivars. The following variables were evaluated: Cycle; Number of pods /plants; Number of grains/pods; Weight of 100 grains and yield. The genetic divergence was obtained by Mahalanobis distance and clustering by UPGMA method. The genotypes BRS Tumucumaque, BRS Pajeú and BRS Guariba are promising for cultivation in the first crop under conditions of low technological level in the Cerrado region of Piauí. The combinations of genotypes BRS Tumucumaque and BRS Imponente, BRS Tumucumaque and BRS Aracê, BRS Guariba and BRS Imponente, BRS Guariba and BRS Aracê and BRS Pajeú and BRS Imponente have great potential for use in breeding programs to obtain promising segregating populations for grain yield and other attributes. The traits weight of 100 grains, cycle and number of grains per pod have the greatest contribution to the genetic diversity in the studied population.

Keywords
Vigna unguiculata; genetic variability; characterization of cultivars