Abstract

Daniel Osadeyandhian IDAHOSA, Joseph Eke ALIKA

A diallel study was conducted involving 8 genomic cowpea cultivars from diverse geographical origin to identify superior germplasm and develop high yielding varieties. The eight populations and their twenty eight crosses were evaluated in two locations. Data obtained for grain yield plant height, days to flowering, pod length, seed/pod and seed weight were analyzed with Gardner and Eberhart model II. General and specific combining abilities effect were highly significant (P<0.05) for the characters except for grain yield and plant height (GCA). There was a preponderance of dominance gene effects for most characters. Estimates of GCA and SCA effects showed that Ekp-br, 325, ILCA-12648, ILCA-12646 were generally good combiners for most of the yield attributes and can be included in future improvement programmes.