Assessment of Relationship between Physiological Traits, Groundnut Yield and Yield Components of Groundnut (<i>Arachis hypogeal L.</i>) Germplasm

Physiological traits contributing to high yield in groundnut might reveal the underlying mechanism from which improved strategies could  be developed to enhance the effectiveness and progress in breeding for yield component of groundnut. The study aim to  determine some physiological characters such as chlorophyll content, canopy temperature, leaf area index (LAI) and photosynthetic  active radiation (PAR) related to groundnut yield. Twenty-five (25) groundnut accessions were evaluated in randomized block design  (RBD) with two replications at ICRISAT research farm, Wasai, Minibir, Kano State, Nigeria. The study was carried out during the 2014 rainy  season to evaluate physiological relationship to yield variations in groundnut accessions from different parts of Nigeria and Mali. The observations on Chlorophyll Content, Canopy Temperature, leaf area Index (LAI), Photosynthetic Active Radiation, Pod length, Pod width,  pod yield, shelling percentage, hundred seed weight and fodder yield characters were recorded. The physiological and yield data were  subjected to analysis of variance General Linear Model (GLM) using SAS verse 9.3 means were separated using Least Significant  Difference (LSD) at P>0.05 The accessions were significantly different (1.207) for all the physiological traits and yield traits except for pod  length, pod width and hundred seed weight where no significant difference was recorded. The highest dry pod and fodder yield was  recorded from the accessions 25, 23 and 22 due to significant favorable yield contributing characters like: chlorophyll content, canopy  temperature, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Photosynthetic Active Radiation, pod length, pod width, pod yield, shelling percentage, hundred seed  weight (g), and fodder weight (g). With regard to physiological traits and yield and yield related traits, accessions 25, 23, and 22 were  considered as promising genotypes for future breeding programme for pod and fodder yield improvement.