Genetic Analysis on Inter Crosses of Cowpea and Yard Long Bean

Cowpea is an important pulse crop of India and Africa. The seed type cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) has pod length from 15cm to 20 cm, whereas the vegetable type cowpea (Yard Long Bean) (Vigna unguiculata spp. sesquipedalis) has the pod length from 30 cm to 65 cm long. The number of seeds per pod and size of the seeds of the Yard Long Bean were higher than the seed type cowpea. So the aim was to combine lengthy pod character from the Yard Long Bean with densely seeded character from seed type cowpea.We found that it is a good approach to increase the yield of cowpea by combining both parental characters through inter sub-specific crossing.