Genetic Diversity among Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] Genotypes Based on Agro Morphological Characters under Rainfed Condition of Manipur

The experiment was carried out to study the extent of genetic diversity among the 75 genotypes of soybean under rainfed condition of Manipur by employing Mahalanobis D2 analysis based on 13 morphological characters. The 75 genotypes of soybean were grouped into nine clusters. Maximum numbers of genotypes were included in the Cluster I comprising 28 genotypes followed by Cluster II with 13 genotypes, Cluster IV with 12 genotypes, Clusters III and V with nine genotypes each and clusters VI, VII, VIII and IX with 1 genotype each. The value of intra-cluster distances ranged from 0.00 to 1181. The highest inter-cluster distance (8937) was observed between Clusters III and IX. The character plant height (34.13%) contributed the highest to the total divergence of the genotypes, followed by pods per plant (29.62%) and days to 80% maturity (14.59%). The highest cluster means values for yield and its component characters were observed in Cluster IX. On the basis of inter-cluster distance, cluster mean values, mean per se performance it is advisable to attempt crosses between genotypes from Clusters III and IX which may lead to obtaining higher heterotic effect and broad spectrum variability in the segregants.