PHENOTYPIC DIVERGENCE FOR AGRO-MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS AMONG DWARF AND MEDIUM DURATION RICE GERMPLASM AND INTER-RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THEIR QUANTITATIVE TRAITS

Abstract

The present studies were carried out to characterize dwarf and medium duration rice germplasm accessions on the basis of eighteen morphological and seven agronomical traits. The coefficient of variation ranges from 9.66 to 43.52% indicating that selection based on the characters showing variation more than 10% is expected to be effective. Plant height has significant correlation with panicle length (r = 0.268) and highly significant correlation with 100-seed weight (r = 0.155) indicating the importance of plant height in improving these traits in rice accessions. Based on the results of the means of the checks, IC 292977 identified superior for highest number of effective tillers per plant (15.93); IC 491282 for 100-seed weight (4.79g), whereas the accession IC132899 was found superior for grain yield per plant (24.63 g) and number of effective tillers (6.53). Likewise, IC491367 had high grain yield per plant (24.30g) with high 100-seed weight (3.51g). Similarly other accessions could be select for different agronomical characters.