EFFECT OF SEED STORAGE TIME ON GERMINATION RATE AND EXTENTS OF MORPHOLOGICAL GENETIC DIVERSITY AND YIELD OF FABA BEAN (Vicia faba L.) GENOTYPES

In Ethiopia, faba bean (Vicia fabaL.) is an important pulse crop widely used as a source of food and cash source to the subsistence farmers. In rare case, it is used as a foreign currency earning to the country. Ecologically, it is used to improve soil fertility. However, its production and productivity are affected by different factors such as seed quality, storage time that is affected by different conditions including prolonged storage time, scarcity of available information on the extents of genetic diversity. Therefore, the present study was designed to test the effects of seed storage time and extents of genetic diversity using twenty-five faba bean samples (24 genotypes and one local check) obtained from Holeta Agricultural Research Center. The experiment was conducted at Holota agricultural research center research field under rain fed condition during the main cropping season in 2019. The experiment was laid using randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Data were collected on twenty-two traits and analyzed using SAS version 9.0 and MINITAB® Release 19. All the qualitative traits showed a wide variation among the phenotypic traits revealing importance in selection breeding. ANOVA for the 16 quantitative traits revealed a very highly significant (P< 0.001) variation for several traits. Likewise, high genetic advance joined with heritability and genotypic coefficient of variation was observed in several of the quantitative traits suggesting their importance in making effective selection breeding targeting their improvement. PCA also differentiate most of quantitative traits that had high contribution to the entire variation within the genotypes. The higher values in cluster distances observed shows the difference in genetic background between the materials in which some were taken from germplasm and others from seed store (released varieties). The highest yields were obtained in Geblcho, Hachalu and moti genotypes which had relatively less storage time. Thus, storage time had some profound effect on the genetic performance of faba bean genotypes and as a result, care should be taken while using seeds stored for longer periods as a seed source. In order to minimize the effects of environmental condition, multiple sites and season-based evaluation needs to be carried out. In addition, molecular markers-based testing is essential to complement the findings.  5