The Use of Correlation and Path Analysis to Determine Traits that Contribute to Groundnut Yield Under the Influence of Poultry Manure and Weed Control Methods.

Field trials were conducted at Teaching and Research farm of Samaru College of Agriculture, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria located in the Northern Guinea Savanna ecological zone of Nigeria during the 2012 and 2013 rainy seasons. The treatments consisted of three varieties of groundnut (Samnut 11, Samnut 22 and Samnut 23), three levels of poultry manure (0, 1.5 and 3 tons per hectare) and five weed control methods which included three levels of post emergence herbicide which are (54g a.i.ha^-1, 108g a.i ha^-1 and 162g a.i ha^-1 of Haloxyfop-R-methyl ester, weedy check, and two hoe weeding at 3 and 6 WAS). The treatments were laid out in a split- plot design with factorial combinations of the weed control methods and poultry manure in the main plot while variety was allocated to the subplots. The treatments were replicated three times. The strength of relationship between growth and yield parameters was studied using correlation coefficient analysis. The direct, indirect, individual and combined contributions of growth and yield components to total pod yield were determined using path analysis. From the result of the study, pod yield was positively and significantly correlated to plant height, number of branches, and number of leaves, crop vigor, and number of pods, weight of pod and 100 seed weight. Number of pods had the strongest effect on pod yield in both years and in the combined, which was followed by plant height. In 2013 wet season, plant height exerted the greatest effect on pod yield which was also followed by number of pods. Number of leaves had the least direct effect on pod yield respectively in both years and their combined. It can be concluded that all the growth and yield characters considered made significant contribution to pod yield and thus constitute important characters that the breeders should consider when breeding for high yielding varieties at Samaru under rainy season.

Key words: Correlation, Path analysis, direct contribution, Percentage contribution.

See more from this Division: ASA Section: Global Agronomy
See more from this Session: Global Agronomy: I

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