Abstract

The effectiveness of intermating or biparental mating (BIPs) was compared with conventional selfed generations (F 2 and F 3 ) in three intervarietal crosses viz., JGL 384 × Rasi (Cross 1), KJTCMS 5B × IR 64 (Cross 2), WGL 14 × Rasi (Cross 3) of rice. The biparental progenies had better mean performance for number of productive tillers per plant and single plant yield than their F 1 , F 2 and F 3 generations. The lower limit of the range was reduced for days to 50 per cent flowering, plant height in all the cross combinations and the value for 1000 grain weight was foreshortened in Cross1 and 2. More over the upper limit of certain characters particularly for number of productive tillers per plant and single plant yield was increased in the desired direction in case of intermated progenies. Although the GCV, PCV, heritability (h 2 ) and genetic advance were of higher magnitude in intermated progenies than in F 2 and F 3 generations for all the characters studied in all cross combinations. Intermating in early segregating generations is an effective method to generate tremendous variability in order to isolate transgressive segregants with early maturity and fine grain quality.

Keywords: Biparental Progenies (BIPs), NCD II, GCV, PCV, Heritability, Genetic advance, Rice.