• P.KARTHIKEYAN
• R.ESWARAN
• R.ELANGAIMANNAN
• V.DURAISAMY

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the most important cereal crop cultivation widely in many parts of the world. The present investigation was carried out to assess the genetic diversity of 57 genotypes of rice. The degree of divergence was computed using D2 analysis. Fifty seven rice genotypes were received from Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Faculty of Agriculture, Annamalai University, Annamalainagar. Seeds of all genotypes were sown in raised bed. One month old seedlings were transplanted with a spacing of 15cm within the plant and 15cm between the rows. Experiment was laid in a randomized block design in two replications. Data on five randomly selected plants from each genotype were collected. The mean of replications was used for statistical analysis. Eleven quality and yield contributing characters were observed, they are number of productive tillers per plant, panicle length, number of grains per panicle, grain length, grain breadth, grain L/B ratio, kernel length, kernel breadth, kernel L/B ratio, 1000 grain weight and grain yield per plant. Genetic diversity was studied using Mahalanobis D2 statistics. The genotypes were grouped into ten clusters. D2 analysis showed the absence of parallelism between geographic origin and genetic diversity. The possibilities of heterotic expression for yield and its components by inter crossing among genotypes from different clusters have been indicated. The genotypes G25 exhibited higher expression for grain yield per plant and also exhibited higher mean expression for number of grains per panicle. The genotype G43 possessed higher expression for grain yield per plant. it also showed higher mean expression for 1000 grain weight. The genotype G7 possessed higher expression for grain length and grain L/B ratio .it showed higher men expression for kernel length and kernel L/B ratio. The maximum inter cluster distance was observed between clusters II and X followed by clusters II and IX .This clearly indicated that the genotypes included in these clusters had broad spectrum of genetic diversity. It is therefore suggested that the superior genotype from these clusters may be used as parents in the hybridization programme.

Quality, Yield contributing characters, D2 analysis.

"STUDIES ON QUALITY AND YIELD CONTRIBUTING CHARACTERS IN RICE (Oryza Sativa L.)", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 4, page no.67-77, April-2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1904210.pdf

"STUDIES ON QUALITY AND YIELD CONTRIBUTING CHARACTERS IN RICE (Oryza Sativa L.)", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 4, page no. pp67-77, April-2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1904210.pdf