ASSESSMENT OF GENETIC VARIABILITY OF AGRONOMIC CHARACTERS IN INDIGENOUS AND EXOTIC COLLECTION OF BLACK SOYBEAN (Glycine max (L.) Merrill.).

Genetic divergence was studied for yield and different yield contributing traits in 282 black soybean accessions collected from different eco geographic regions of the world. Based on non-hierarchical euclidean cluster analysis all accessions were grouped into 9 clusters. The first four principle component axes (PCA) accounted for 70.28% of total variance. Minimum mean value for days to 50% flowering (46), plant height (82.75 cm) and days to maturity (121) were obtained in cluster I. So this cluster can be very useful to develop early maturing genotypes. Cluster IX contained eight accessions showed maximum mean value for pod length (4.26 cm), 100 seed weight (14.87 g) and seed yield per plant (8.09 g). So, from yield point of view, this cluster can be used to develop high yielding as well as high grain weight genotypes. Inter cluster distance was found maximum between cluster IV and IX (6.39). Hence genotypes from these clusters can be used in hybridization to get desirable recombinants. Accessions VBS 25, VBS 48 from cluster VII and VBS161, VBS152 from cluster VIII found as exceptionally superior donor which can be used in multiple crossing programmes to get transgressive segregants for desirable traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]