GENETIC VARIABILITY IN MORPHO-AGRONOMIC AND YIELD CHARACTERISTICS OF DIFFERENT ACCESSIONS OF Glycine max (L) MERR

Glycine max is a versatile food plant that when used in various forms, is capable of supplying a lot of nutrients and also capable of reducing protein malnutrition. The study evaluated the qualitative as well as morpho-agronomic characteristics of seven accessions (TGM 188, TGM 790, TGM 307, TGM 240, TGM 1210, TGM 767 and a Local variety) of G. max. The result obtained showed that TGM307 has the highest germination percentage, while TGM767 has the highest number of leaves. TGM790 has the tallest plant height as well as the shortest days to 50% flowering. TGM1210 has the largest number of pods, as well as the largest number of seeds per pod. TGM188 has the shortest day to first flowering, as well as the largest 100 seed weight. Qualitative analysis revealed that the accessions are mostly heterogeneous and morphologically diverse. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) revealed that the first three principal axes explained 89.87% of the total variation for the morphological and yield traits. The traits which furnish most of the observed variations in the accessions include number of pods per plant, number of primary branches, days to first and 50% flowering. Cluster analysis revealed that the accessions were clustered into 5 groups. The accessions in the different clusters can therefore be recommended for cultivation or used in the development of improved cultivars of G.max. Further studies should be carried out on the nutritional value of these accessions in order to determine their protein, carbohydrate or fat contents.