Genetic divergence analysis of traditional rice cultivars of West Bengal, India.

Genetic divergence was assessed among 51 landraces of rice genotypes using Mahalanobis's D2 analysis. The 51 rice genotypes were grouped into 11 clusters. Cluster II was found to be the largest comprising 16 genotypes followed by cluster III having 8 genotypes and cluster I included 7 genotypes. Cluster VI and XI had single genotype each. The pattern of distribution of genotypes from different ecogeographical regions into various clusters was at random indicating that geographical diversity and genetic diversity were not related. The characters viz. culm diameter, culm length, grain length contributed maximum towards genetic divergence among the genotypes and supposed to play important role in the improvement of rice. On the basis of cluster mean, intra and inter cluster distance and per se, cluster XI, X, XI, VI and VII may be used for their desirable characters in breeding programme of rice. Entries like, Sarkele aman, Annada and Jhingasal were selected which could be intercrossed to obtain high heterotic effect and also to recover desirable transgressive segregants.