INHERITANCE OF POD CHARACTERISTICS FOR INCREASE YIELD IN COWPEA VARIETIES

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp) is a popular grain legume in Nigeria. Cowpea feeds millions of people in the developing World. It is a cheaper source of protein than meat for the rural and urban poor people. Genetic variability among five accessions of cowpea was evaluated. Cowpea seed of five different accessions which include; TVU-8453,TVU-347,TVU-1644,TVU-13950,TVU-3366 collected from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Ibadan. Oyo State. Nigeria and local varieties; Sokoto White, Sokoto Red, Holstein Brown (Amotekun), Ewa Oloyin and Milk Beans collected from Akungba Akoko were sown in a perforated plastic bag that was laid in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replicates. Cultural practices such as weeding and watering were carried out. Morphological data such as plant height, number of braches, number of leaves, vine length and seed emergence were taken and subjected to Analysis of Variance using SPSS version 21, Duncan's multiple range test at 5% was used to separate the accessions means. Analysis of variance showed that the quantitative traits assessed were significantly different(p0.05)..V4 had the highest plant height (19.29), number of leaves (8.21) and vine length (10.70). Highest number of branches (2.63) was observed in V5 while seed emergence was highest in V1 (1.48). Genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) and phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) was highest in vine length (21.30,87.40), heritability (H2B) was highest in plant height (37.10), genetic advance (GA) and genetic advance as percent of mean (GAM) were highest in number of branches (84.20, 3676.90). Plant height was significantly and positively correlated with number of leaves (0.694), vine length (0.670) and number of branches (0.738). Number of leaves was significantly and positively correlated with vine length (0.804) and number of branches (0.760). Vine length was significantly and positively correlated with number of branches (0.603). However, high GA coupled with high GAM reported for number of branches indicated that this trait was least influenced by the environmental effects and governed by additive gene action. Hence, the accession which exhibited better performance for this trait can be used in future breeding programs of cowpea.