Title: Heterosis for yield and yield contributing characters in cowpea genotypes
Abstract: Fifteen F<sub>1</sub> hybrids obtained by crossing 6 diverse parental lines of cowpea through diallel excluding reciprocals method was studied to investigate the extent of heterosis for yield and yield contributing characters during <italic>kharif</italic>, 2007 and <italic>spring</italic><italic>summer</italic>, 2008 season. Among the various components pods per plant and seeds per pods are important factor contributing to yield. IT-97K-1042 and IT-93K-452 were observed to be the top performing parents for total seed yield per plant. The crosses IT-97K-1042 X IT-98K-1111 and IT-97K-1042 X Pusa Komal were best heterotic crosses for seed yield and other characters.