The present study was carried out during 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 seasons at the Experimental Farm of Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, Assiut Branch. Seeds were planted in a randomized complete block design with three replications.15 F1,s obtained from a half diallel crossing system of faba bean cultivars were genetically analyzed according to Griffing (1956) Model І Method ІІ. The studied characters were yield and its components.
Results showed that both general (G.C.A) and specific (S.C.A) combining abilities were significant for all studied characters and revealed that shoots number/plant, pods number/plant, seeds number/pod, 100-seed weight, seeds weight/plant and crude protein% were mainly affected by additive and non-additive effect. Both variances due to G.C.A and S.C.A were controlled all studied characters .
Heterosis percentage was significant for all studied characters. The best crosses for these traits in ranking were Assiut85×Misr1 in shoots/plant, pods/plant and seeds weight/plant traits, while the crosses Giza40×Misr1 and Giza40×Assiut98 were the superiors in seeds/pod trait and for 100-seed weight, the cross Giza40× Giza429 was the highest crosses, while the cross Giza429×Misr1 was the best in crude protein %, respectively.
Generally, it could be concluded that the best promising combinations were Assiut 85× Misr1. Also, more of these crosses which Looza (foreign parent) shared in them were a good crosses like Looza×Giza429 for shoots/plant, Looza×Assiut85 was very good for pods/plant, Looza×Assiut98, Looza×Misr1 were excellent for seeds weight/plant and Looza×Misr1 a good cross for crude protein %. Moreover, heritability was high for all studied characters