The present investigation was carried out during July 2020 to October 2021 at the Research Farm of Rajasthan Agricultural Research Institute, Durgapura to estimate heritability and genetic advance for seed yield and its contributing traits in Cowpea for four crosses. The experiment material consists of six generations i.e., P1, P2, F1, F2, BC1 and BC2 of four crosses (Sel 152 Gujarat × CPD10, RC101 × TEML-84-1, CPD13 × GC3, IC8966 × CAZC10) involving eight diversified cultivars of cowpea. The evaluation trial was conducted during Kharif 2021 to evaluate all the six generations of each single cross in a randomized block design with three replications to observe 14 yield characteristics. The seed yield per plant showed exceptionally high broad-sense heritability in all crosses, particularly in IC8966 × CAZC-10 (91.63%).The high genetic advance observed (77.26% for IC8966 × CAZC-10) further emphasizes that this trait is largely governed by additive genetic factors, and selection for seed yield in this cross would likely be highly effective

Cowpea, heritability and genetic advance

The high estimates of broad-sense heritability observed for key traits like seed yield per plant, plant height, and harvest index across several crosses suggest that these traits are predominantly governed by genetic factors and are less influenced by the environment. Notably, traits with high heritability coupled with high genetic advance—such as seed yield in IC8966 × CAZC-10 and plant height in Sel 152 Gujarat × CPD-10 indicate the predominance of additive gene action, making them ideal candidates for improvement through direct selection

Rajwanti Saran and S.K. Jain (2025). Heritability and Genetic Advance Analysis for Seed Yield and its Contributing Traits in Cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp]. Biological Forum, 17(6): 59-63