Studying the Genetic Parameters of Some Cultivars of Faba Bean (Vicia faba L.) and Evaluating Their Performance under Different Levels of Phosphorous

A field experiment was carried out during the winter season of 2021-2022 in the research station - College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences - University of Baghdad in order to study the genetic parameters of some cultivars of faba bean cultivars and evaluate their performance under different levels of phosphorus. Spilled plots were arranged according to randomized complete block design (RCBD) at three replications. The main plots included three levels of phosphorous fertilizer (80, 120 and 160 Kg ha-1 ) and the control treatment (without fertilizer). In contrast, the subplots included four faba bean cultivars (Local, Spanish, Dutch and New Zealand). The results showed highly significant effects of phosphorous fertilizer levels on the most studied traits, as adding phosphorous fertilizer at 160 Kg gave the highest means of several pods per plant (17.78 pods plant-1 ) and seed yield (4.403 tons ha-1 ). Also, the results showed that the faba bean cultivars were significantly different in most studied traits, as the Local cultivar achieved the highest mean number of pods per plant (16.95pod plant-1 ). In contrast, the Dutch cultivar achieved the highest mean number of seeds per pod (5.78 seed pod-1 ), whereas the Spanish cultivar achieved the highest mean weight of 100 seeds (86.95 g) and seed yield (5.295 ton ha-1 ). The interaction between studied factors had a non-significant effect on all studied traits except the number of pods per plant. The genetic variance recorded greater values than the environmental variance in most of the studied traits, indicating that the genetic variance significantly contributed to the phenotypic variance. Keywords: Genetic indicators, phosphorous, Vicia faba L., G.C.V., PCV.