Agro-Morphological Characterization of Lentil Genotypes in Dry Environments

This study aimed to assess genetic variability among lentil genotypes at the agro-morphological level and to identify the most promising genotypes for cultivation in dry environments. Our field evaluation included 36 lentil genotypes collected from Yemen, Bangladesh, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and International Center for Agriculture Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), in a triple Lattice experiment. Twenty-four agro-morphological traits were evaluated. Analyses of variance showed highly significant inter and intra block differences for all genotypes tested. On average, the genotypes required 74 days to flowering and 135 days to maturity. Genotype BD-Barimasur-6 (57 days to flower) was the earliest flowering genotype, but YE35016, YE35038, BD-Barimasur-3, BD-Barimasur-7 and BD-Barimasur-6 were the earliest maturating genotypes. The EG-Giza 9 and EG-Giza 51 produced the highest number of pods per plant, while the highest seed weight at both locations was recorded for SA-KSUYellow1, 2 and 3. Genotype SA-KSURed out yielded the all genotypes at both locations and surpassed overall locations mean. Principal component analysis (PCA) supported by hierarchical cluster analysis based on quantitative and qualitative traits- distributed the 36 genotypes according to geographical origin for both locations. Broad diversity was found among the tested lentil genotypes for different characters. The potential genotypes of lentil were identified for their use in genetic analysis and lentil breeding programmes for dry areas.