Effectiveness of Traits for Direct Selection under Severe Drought Stress Condition in Rice

Abstract

Morphological and yield related traits of 76 rice genotypes were studied during dry seasons of 2012 and 2013 to estimate the genetic variability, heritability, correlation coefficients and path analysis among some drought related and morphological traits and contribution of these traits to the yield under drought stress directly and indirectly in rice. Highly significant variation was obtained for all the traits were studied such as days to 50% flowering, plant height, ear bearing tiller, panicle length, total dry matter production, harvest index, kernel length, kernel breadth and 1000-grain weight. Relatively high GCV, PCV, broad sense heritability and genetic advance obtained for ear bearing tiller, total dry matter production, harvest index and plot yield suggested these characters would be inherited to the progenies after hybridization and phenotypic based selection would be effective. Grain yield was found to be positively and significantly associated with panicle length, ear bearing tiller, total dry matter production and harvest index at genotypic level, indicating the importance of these traits for yield improvement in upland rice. Harvest index exhibited maximum positive direct effect on grain yield.