Evaluation of seedling growth of rice (Oryza sativa L.) genotypes under water stress and non-stress conditions

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a species of crops which is highly sensitive to drought. The sensitivity to water stress varies from genotypes to genotypes of rice. An experiment was performed to compare twenty-five different rice genotypes for drought tolerance in the seedling stage at Gokuleshwor Agriculture and Animal Science College, Baitadi Nepal from July to August 2018. The genotypes were tested under two conditions viz., water stress and non-water stress. The research work was carried out in a completely random design (CRD) with three replications. The results exhibited the height of seedling, length & breadth of leaf, number of leaves/plant decreased, and number of leaves shedding increased under water stress condition. Clustering was done by the method of average linkage, and genotypes were categorized into five clusters. The genotype, namely Radha 11 grouped in Cluster-V had higher plant height, bigger length & breadth of leaf, maximum number of leaves/plant and minimum number of leaf shedding. Thus, this genotype showed the best performance for morphological traits under water stress condition. Therefore, this genotype Radha 11 can be utilized further for developing rice variety with drought-tolerance.