Background: Horse gram is the potential rainfed legume in Indian farming. The major limitation in horse gram breeding is the narrow variability. Variability induction and its estimation would sustain food security.
Methods: Variability was induced using gamma rays, electron beam and ethyl methanesulfonate and their combinations. The induced variation for the economic traits, their inheritance and genetic gain were ascertained.
Result: The analysis of variance indicated the induction of significant variation for yield attributing traits. The population was grouped into 10 constellations by the virtue of induced variation. The groups I, II and V were the largest comprising of 38, 31 and 19 mutants respectively. The mutants exhibited significant intra and inter group variation. The mutagens induced the maximum variability for plant height (32.24%), 100 seed weight (25.42%) and number of pods per plant (19.18%). The mutants possessed high genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation for all the characters except flowering traits and duration. The induced variability for the yield attributing traits possessed significant breeding value as the heritability (86.66%-99.72%) and genetic advance as percent of mean (10.65-81.94) were high and the environmental influence was the minimum.