Studies on combining ability in rice bean

Combining ability studies in rice bean (Vign. umbellata (Thumb) Ohwi and Ohashi) revealed that both the additive and non additive gene effects were important for plant height, number of branches per plant, number of cluster per plant, number of pods per plant, pod length, seeds per pod, 100 seed weight and grain yield per plant. The cultivars RB-56, CXM-12-P3 and CXM-8-P2 were the best general combiners on the basis of their GCA effects. The crosses RB-56 × CXM-12-P3 and RB-56 × CXM-8-P2 were found to be better for most of the yield components. Bi-parental mating system was suggested for improvement of rice bean.