Analysis of Variability and Character Association in Indigenous Aromatic Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Sixty rice genotypes were evaluated during kharif 2013 for sixteen quantitative and quality traits to examine the nature and magnitude of variability, heritability, genetic advance and correlation. Analysis of variance revealed that the differences among sixty genotypes were significant for all the characters. The characters viz., number of effective tillers per plant, seeds per panicle and brown rice length exhibited high Genotypic Coefficient of Variation (GCV) and Phenotypic Coefficient of Variation (PCV). Small differences between GCV and PCV were recorded for all the characters studied which indicated less influence of environment on these characters. The characters viz., plant height, days to 50 per cent flowering, days to maturity and seeds per panicle exhibited high heritability coupled with high genetic advance indicating that simple selection could be effective for improving these characters. Grain yield per plant had significant and positive correlation with days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, plant height, effective tillers per plant, panicle length, seeds per panicle and kernel breadth after cooking.