Moth bean (Vigna aconitifolia) is an orphan legume ofVignagenus, exhibiting wide adaptability and has the potential to grow well in arid and semi-arid areas, predominantly across different eco-geographical regions of Asia, particularly the Indian subcontinent. The inherent adaptive attributes of this crop have made it more tolerant towards a diverse array of abiotic and biotic stresses that commonly restrain yield among otherVignaspecies. Additionally, the legume is recognized for its superior nutritional quality owing to its high protein content as well as amino acid, mineral and vitamin profile and is utilized as both food and fodder. Moth bean can play a vital role in sustaining food grain production, enhancing nutritional security as well as provide a source of income to resource-poor farmers amid rise in global temperatures and frequent drought occurrences, particularly in rain-fed cropping systems which accounts for about 80% of the world’s cultivated land. However, this minor legume has remained underutilized due to over-exploitation of major staple crops. With the exception of a few studies involving conventional breeding techniques, crop improvement in moth bean for traits such as late maturity, indeterminate growth habit, shattering and anti-nutritional factors has not garnered a lot of attention. Recent advances in sequencing technologies, modern breeding approaches and precision phenotyping tools, in combination with the available crop gene pool diversity in gene banks, can accelerate crop improvement in moth bean and lead to the development of improved cultivars. Considering the recent surge in awareness about the development of climate-smart crops for sustainable agricultural future, collective effort towards effective utilization of this hardy, neglected legume is the need of the hour.

The present investigation was undertaken to study the genetic variability, diversity through cluster analysis and correlation among yield attributing traits. The experimental material is comprised of 63 diverse germplasm accessions including three check varieties were evaluated in augmented design during Rabi 2015-16 at IIPR, Kanpur. In this study, totally nine traits, namely, days to fifty per cent flowering (DF), days to maturity (DM), plant height (PH), number of branches per plant (NBP), number of pods per plant (NPP), pod length (PL), seeds per pod (SPP), 100 seeds wt (g) (HSW) and seed yield per plant (g) (SYP) were recorded. The results exhibited that the analysis of variance noticed significant differences among the genotypes for all characters studied. The genetic variability parameter showed that phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) were higher than those of genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) for all the traits studied. Higher GCV coupled with heritability and genetic advance as % mean was recorded for PH, NPP, HSW and SYP. Likewise, high heritability coupled with high genetic advance as % mean was recorded in DF, PH, NPP, PL, HSW and SYP. Trait association study revealed that the seed yield per plant exhibited significant positive correlation with NBP, NPP, NSP and HSW. In the same pattern, Euclidian clustering analysis displays 63 genotypes were grouped to two major clusters. From this investigation, it was observed that all genotypes showed sufficient genetic variability for the traits studied. The genotype such as EC400414, EC400398, ET8415 and EC540173 were superior to check varieties in terms of morphological and other agronomic traits. These genotypes could be utilized in breeding programme for improvement of specific traits.

The present study was undertaken to study the crossability barriers in interspecific crosses of Vigna radiata × Vigna umbellata. The basic materials of this experiment comprising of five mungbean MYMV Susceptible genotypes and five rice bean MYMV resistant genotypes. Interspecific crosses were attempted by utilizing rice bean genotypes as male parents and mungbean genotypes as female parents. The successful pod set was observed on 12 crosses out of 25 interspecific crosses of Vigna radiata and Vigna umbellata. The results revealed that highest crossability per cent was recorded in the crosses Yellowmung × KBR-1 (17.30 %), DGGV-2× RBL-35 (16.0%), Selection-4×KBR-1 (11.80%), Chinamung × KBR-1 (11.0%) and BGS-9× RBL-35 (10.20%) which were considered as successful crosses. This suggests that the parents of these four interspecific cross combinations may be ideal for transfer of useful genes across the two divergent species and to broaden the genetic base of interspecific hybrid and further, the existence of moderate hybrid pollen fertility (78.24%) coupled with moderate seed germination percentage (36.84%), lower hybrid lethality (21.43%) and lower hybrid breakdown (7.14%) was observed in Chinamung × KBR-1 followed by cross Selection-4 ×KBR-1. In the present investigation prominent observation noticed are strong pre-fertilization as well as post fertilization barriers were present in the cross between V. radiata and V. umbellata, while, growth and lethality of interspecific hybrid seedlings were influenced by the genotypes of both the parental species.

Chickpea is a cool season, photothermal-sensitive crop, that is adversely affected by high temperatures (>35°C) and whose flowering is promoted by long-day conditions (>12 h). This prevents horizontal crop spread under a variety of agro-climatic conditions and the development of insensitive genotypes that perform well in all seasons. Therefore, a study was conducted to identify genotypes that are mature early, insensitive to photoperiod, high temperature and tolerant to drought stress. A set of 74 genotypes was evaluated under rainfed conditions in Kharif 2021 (off-season) to select eight promising early-maturing genotypes with high-yielding capacity. Then further investigations were conducted in five different seasons Late Kharif 2021, rabi 2021, summer 2022, early Kharif 2022 and Kharif 2022 to identify the genotypes with photothermo-insensitivity among the selected eight genotypes. With the exception of rabi 2021, each of these seasons were distinct from the chickpea's typical growing season. Among these eight, the stable genotypes which are performed better in all the seasons, especially in summer were considered, such as IPC 06-11, MNK-1, JG-14 and ICE 15654-A as a photothermo-insensitive, were able to flower and set pods with higher seed yield and, resulting in early maturity in a temperature range of 41.4/9.3°C with photoperiods of 13.1/10.9 h to reach in all seasons throughout the year. The heritability was more than 60%. Hence, these genotypes can be used as donor aids in the development of early maturing, drought stress tolerant and photothermo-insensitive chickpea.

Assessing genetic diversity and identifying trait-specific germplasm within germplasm collections is necessary for a varietal development programme. Agronomic features were investigated in 318 diverse dry bean germplasm accessions, including check varieties. We observed a lot of genetic variability for the traits studied. A wide range of variations was noticed for days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, pod length, the number of seeds per pod and 100-seed weight (HSW). For eight of the agronomic features evaluated, the analysis of variance revealed substantial differences among the accessions. For all characters, phenotypic coefficient of variation estimations were more significant than genotypic coefficient of variation. Plant height, days to 50% flowering, seed yield (q/ha) and HSW had high heritability and genetic advance as a per cent of the mean. Association analysis revealed a significant positive relationship between HSW, plant height, pod length and seed yield (q/ha). According to a hierarchical clustering analysis based on agronomic features, the diversity of dry bean germplasm has no significant association with their geographical origin. The number of pods per plant, plant height, days to maturity, days to 50% flowering and seed yield had relatively long vectors based on principal components 1 and 2, indicating that genotypes differ significantly. Additionally, the trait-specific donors and bean common mosaic virus disease-resistant accessions, IC360831, ET4515, EC150250, IC340947, IC564797B, EC565693 and ET8409 could be of value for dry bean improvement.

Twenty-nine exotic common bean germplasms and three elite cultivars were examined for phenotypic diversity in two bean-producing environments (Kanpur and Shimla) across three winter seasons and one rainy season. The estimate of genetic variability parameters revealed that the exotic bean germplasm has enough diversity for all the evaluated features. The highest genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation were found in seed yield, followed by 100-seed weight, pods per plant and pod length. Furthermore, seed yield was the most heritable and genetically advanced quantitative feature, followed by 100-seed weight, pod length and pods per plant. According to a trait association study, the days to maturity of phenological traits have a strong positive correlation with the days to initial flowering and the days to 50% flowering. Pods per plant and seeds per pod most strongly influence increased grain yield. The first two principal components accounted for 63.3% of the variation and demonstrated significant diversity among exotic bean lines for the traits studied, according to the principal component analysis. According to the hierarchical clustering analysis, 29 accessions and three cultivars were divided into three groups. Cluster I contains early flowering and maturing accessions, while cluster III contains high pods per plant and an increased grain yield of germplasms. The fundamental source of phenological fluctuations in both environmental circumstances is temperature. This study found four genetically divergent and stable performance accessions, including EC932021, EC932189 (earliness), and EC931452, EC931971 (high grain yield), which may aid in the establishment of a bean breeding programme.