MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF EARLY SEEDLING VIGOUR AND ITS COMPONENT TRAITS IN A SUBSET OF RICE (ORYZA SATIVA L.) 3K PANEL

Early seedling vigour is a critical trait in direct-seeded rice systems, influencing crop establishment, weed competitiveness and yield potential.This study evaluated 168 diverse accessions from the 3K rice genome panel for vigour related traits using the paper towel method.Phenotypic assessments at 7 th day and 15 th day post-germination included germination percentage, seedling length, dry weight and seedling vigour indices.Descriptive statistics revealed substantial variability among accessions, with germination efficiency exceeding 97% in most cases.Correlation analysis indicated strong interdependence among vigour component traits, particularly between seedling length and vigour indices.Principal component analysis identified two major dimensions of variation, elongation-based vigour and biomass accumulation.PC1, explaining 72.55% of the variance, was primarily associated with seedling length and vigour indices, while PC2 (14.27% variance) highlighted dry matter accumulation as a distinct growth strategy.These findings provide valuable insights into genetic variation in seedling vigour and offer a basis for selecting high-performing genotypes for DSR breeding programs.