Assessment of variability and interrelationship between yield and yield related traits towards divergence in rice (Oryza sativa L.) landraces

Knowledge of variability and magnitude of divergence between agronomic traits play fundamental role in selection of desirable landraces in breeding programme. The present study evaluated 31 rice landraces for 20 morphological traits. All the studied quantitative traits showed significant variation among the landraces. Marked differences between (GCV) i.e, genotypic coefficient of variation and (PCV) i.e, phenotypic coefficient of variation estimates were noticed in to the panicle weight, panicle length, number of primary branches panicle(-1), total grains panicle (-1), chaffy grains panicle(-1), filled grains panicle(-1), boiled kernel length and breadth indicating substantial variation for these characters was governed by environmental components. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance as per cent of mean (GAM) was observed for 12 days plant height, 100 grains weight, grain length, grain breadth, ligule length, leaf length, leaf breadth, kernel before boiling length, kernel before boiling breadth and grain yield indicating the dominant role of additive gene action in the phenological expression of these traits. Plant height, 100 grains weight, grain breadth and leaf breadth had strong positive correlation with yield and among themselves highlighting the usefulness of these agronomic traits in selection of high yielder. Path analysis further revealed the importance of the traits in influencing the grain yield. UPGMA based dendrogram grouped the landraces into four clusters and no cluster was found to contain landraces with all the desirable traits. First five principal components were significant and explained 76.62% of total variation among all the landraces. Overall findings can help rice breeders in selection of effective combination of parental genotypes carrying the desirable characters. [GRAPHICS] .