Genetic Divergence in Ethiopian Fenugrek Landraces

Keeping in view the lack of information on genetic diversity in the Ethiopian fenugreek landraces on one hand and its immense importance in the agricultural systems on the other in Ethiopia, 143 random samples of fenugreek accessions with one commercial variety were considered to investigate genetic diversity and associations of different traits with seed yield, crude protein and among themselves. There were were highly significant differences for most of the characters. The differences between the clusters were mainly attributed to the variation in thousand seed weight.The genetic variation available for the traits in the initial collection could be preserved in the nine established core collections except for the core constructed by Ward¿s clustering method combined with random sampling. These core subsets can be used as a point of entry for efficient and effective exploitation of the germplasm resources for the improvement of the crop.