Background and Objective: The presence of variability in the existing germplasm is fundamental for successful crop improvement. Because of this, study was conducted at Uke, Western Ethiopia in the 2018 main cropping season to explore the genetic variability potentials of existing soybean genotypes for future breeding programs. Materials and Methods: Hundred soybean genotypes were tested in 10×10 simple lattice design and data were collected on several agronomic traits. Results: The study revealed highly significant differences among soybean genotypes tested for all characters except for primary branches per plant and the number of nodules per plant. The highest mean seed yield of 2897 kg ha1 was about 83% yield advantage over the grand mean while 228% over the lowest yielding genotype. And, about 41% of the genotypes had seed yield above the grand mean. Moreover, high GCV coupled with high heritability and genetic advance as percent of mean characters was obtained for primary branches, several nodules per plant, biological yield and seed yield indicating the presence of more additive genes and high possibility of genetic improvement through selection and/or hybridization in these characters. Conclusion: The result suggests the existence of sufficient genetic variability among soybean genotypes tested for various desirable characters to achieve better genetic gain for seed yield. PDFFulltextXMLReferencesCitation
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Diriba Beyene, Zerihun Jalata and Negash Geleta, 2022. Exploring the Genetic Variability, Heritability and Genetic Gain in Soybean (Glycine max L. Merrill) Genotypes. International Journal of Agricultural Research, 17: 43-49.