Vol. 8, Issue 1, Part A (2026)

Horse gram (Macrotyloma uniflorum) is an important underutilized legume valued for its adaptability to drought-prone environments, nutritional richness and significance in traditional farming systems. Despite its resilience, productivity remains low due to limited genetic improvement. This study evaluated thirty horse gram germplasm lines during Rabi 2017 at RARS, Palem, to assess genetic variability and divergence using analysis of variance, variability parameters, principal component analysis and cluster analysis. Significant differences were detected for all traits except number of branches per plant and number of pods per plant. Wide variation was observed for days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, pod number, seed number, seed size and yield. Phenotypic variance exceeded genotypic variance for most traits and high heritability coupled with high genetic advance was recorded for one hundred seed weight and seed yield, indicating strong additive gene action. Principal component analysis revealed that the first three components explained 72.39% of the total variation, with seed yield contributing most strongly. K-means clustering grouped the germplasm into four distinct clusters, supported by hierarchical clustering. Divergent genotypes such as PHGG-131, PHGG-132, PHGG-157, PHGG-161, PHGG-170, PHGG-171, PHGG-183, PHGG-184, PHGG-198 and PHGG-200 were identified as potential parents. The combined findings provide a strong basis for selection and the development of improved horse gram varieties.