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Fifty-six diverse cowpea genotypes were assessed for associations among various agronomic characters and also path analysis for pod yield per plant. The values of genotypic correlation were higher than their corresponding phenotypic correlations. The green pod yield per plant had highly significant and positive correlations at both genotypic and phenotypic levels with pod length, 10-pod weight and number of pods per plant whereas pod width, number of seeds per pod, number of pods per cluster and 100-seed weight had positive and non-significant association with green pod yield per plant. Days to first green pod picking and plant height had negative and highly significant correlations at both genotypic and phenotypic levels with green pod yield per plant. The number of primary branches per plant had negative and non-significant association with green pod yield per plant.

The path coefficient analysis indicated that the highest positive direct as well as appreciable indirect influences were exerted by number of pods per plant, pod length and ten pod weight. However, number of pods per cluster showed moderate positive direct effect on green pod yield per plant. These results suggested that characters such as number of pods/plants, pod length, 10 pod weight and number of pod/cluster may be considered as the most important yield contributing characters and due emphasis may be given on these components while selecting for high yielding types of vegetable cowpea. Molecular characterization revealed that genotype JCPL-4 and JCPL-51are highly diverse and can be used for creating variability.