The Study of Morphological Characteristics and Statistics of the Phenotypes and Correlation in Faba Bean (Vicia faba L.) Germplasm

Faba bean is amongst the most important food legumes in the world. Ninety landraces and six released faba bean accessions were evaluated for variability parameters, correlation, and path coefficients for nineteen traits at two locations over two years. There were significant differences (P < 0.05) to very high significant differences (P < 0.001) among accessions for all traits considered in all environments except for leaf width, days to flowering, number of seeds per pod, and seed filling period which were non-significant at Girar Jerso in 2018 and number of branches per plant was also non-significant at Degem in 2018. In this study phenotypic coefficient of variation, genotypic coefficient of variation, and broad-sense heritability also revealed medium to high values for most traits. Genetic gains expected from selecting the top 5% of the genotypes, as a percent of the mean varied from 0.49% to 145.83%. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance as percent of mean was observed for most of the traits, indicating an improvement in these traits through simple selection. Path coefficient analysis indicated, traits that had a positive direct effect and correlation with grain yield, could be used as a reliable indicator in indirect selection for higher grain yield.