Abstract

                                The present study aimed analyze the variability, correlation, and pathanalysis in 97 rice landraces of Tamil Nadu for ten quantitative characters.The Phenotypic Coefficient of Variation and Genotypic Coefficient ofVariation of the traits, namely total number of tillers, productive tillers perplant, and yield per plant, were high, indicating that these traits were notaffected by the environment. Moderate Phenotypic coefficient of variationand Genotypic Coefficient of Variation was observed for the traits days to50% flowering, plant height, days to maturity, and test weight, indicating thatselection based on the heritable nature of the trait would be effective. Highheritability coupled with high genetic advance as a percentage of meanwas recorded for days to 50% flowering, plant height, the total number oftillers, productive tillers per plant, days to maturity, test weight, and plantyield. This shows that direct selection of these traits in crop improvementwill be very effective because additive effects control these traits. In theassociation analysis, the plant height at the genotypic and phenotypiclevels and test weight at the genotypic level showed a highly significant andsignificant positive correlation with plant yield. Path coefficient analysisshows that the total number of tillers, panicle length, decorticated grainlength, and decorticated grain width had a strong positive effect on theperformance of a single plant. Direct selection of characteristics suchas plant height, test weight, the total number of tillers, panicle length,decorticated grain length, and decorticated grain width can increase singleplant yield. Therefore, selection based on these traits for improving riceyield would be desirable.

Key words : Variability; PCV; GCV; Correlation; Path analysis; Rice landraces