Vol. 11, Issue 5 (2022)

Author(s):
Lalita Kumari, DN Bastia, B Pradhan, KC Samal, Sri Sai Subramanyam Das and Ashish Rai

Abstract:
The increasing demand for superior rice in domestic and international market is directly defined by its appearance qualities. Thus, efforts to enhance rice productivity with keeping good grain quality are on the top priority in rice breeding. In the present experiment genetic divergence studies were conducted based on Mahalanobis D² statistic and Anderson’s canonical analysis based on variation present in 11 yield attributing traits. The present experiment was carried out with 52 advanced elite lines of slender grain rice including 6 checks, evaluated for eleven traits following RBD with two replication during kharif, 2019 at Rice Research station, O.U.A.T., Bhubaneswar. D² values of all the fifty-two genotype combination based on 11 studied traits ranged from 6.61 (between OR 2674-14-4-4 and OR 2674-14-4-5) to 1762.45 (between OR 2762-1 and Samba mahsuri). L/B ratio and 1000 grains weight had maximum contribution to genetic divergence. Based on Mahalanobis D² statistic 52 genotypes were grouped into 8 clusters. Cluster I was largest comprised of 13 lines, followed by cluster II with 11 lines, cluster III consisted of 10 lines, cluster IV accommodated 6 lines, cluster V comprised of 5 lines, cluster VI and cluster VII both composed of 3 lines and cluster VIII is monogenic. The intra cluster D² value ranged from 00.00 (cluster VIII) to 926.511 (Cluster II). The inter cluster D² value was found highest between cluster IV and Cluster VI (1398.889) and lowest between Cluster I and Cluster VIII (178.322). Therefore, the above information revealed that some lines were genetically very close to each other and rest possessed marked difference between them, accordingly they can be used for crossing programme. The genotypes OR 2762-35, OR2762-7, OR 2762-2 were found promising on the basis of yield and also revealed appreciablegrain qualities and plant architecture.