Chickpea is very important legume crop and rich source of proteins. This crop must be explored for variability and correlation to facilitate the breeders define the selection criteria for planning breeding program. Fifty diverse chickpea genotypes were evaluated for different yield components. Analysis of variance showed significant differences in genotypes for all the traits under study. Seed yield per plant had positive and significant correlation with plant height, days to flowering, number of primary and secondary branches, number of pods per plant, total biomass per plant and number of seeds per plant. The path-coefficient investigations showed that pods per plant had maximum direct contribution to seed yield followed by number of primary branches, number of seeds per pod and total biomass per plant . From present studies, therefore, it may be concluded that number o f pods per plant exerted great influence directly and indirectly on seed yield. The characters like germination percentage, days to flowering, plant height, number of branches per plant, number of seeds per plant, total biomass per plant were most important for selecting high yielding genotypes. Key words: chickpea, yield, yield contributing traits, association, path analysis. Received: 15-April-2016, Accepted: 19-June-2016 Introduction
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