Abstract
A study to investigate the inter-relationships of harvest index (HI) and ten other traits in cowpea. Vigna unguiculata, was conducted at the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training, University of Ife, Ibadan, for two years. There were significant differences between the cultivars for HI and some of the other traits investigated. HI was positively and significantly correlated with weight of plants, pod length, number of pods plant and number of seeds pod 1 but negatively correlated with threshing percentage. While HI was the second most important determinant of cowpea yield (after number of pods plant-1), differences in threshing percentage accounted for most of the observed variation in HI in this study. The implications of these findings in developing cowpea cultivars with superior HI and consequent improved yield are discussed.
