Genetic Association and Path Coefficient Analysis in rice (Oryza sativa L.) Genotype

The experiment was conducted in a Randomized Block Design with three replications during the Kharif season 2023 at Field experimentation centre, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Naini Agriculture Institute, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Naini, Prayagraj, U.P. the plant-to-plant distance was 20 cm and row to row distance was 15 cm. The data were recorded from randomly selected five plants for each genotypes for each replications for thirteen characters viz. days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, plant height (cm), flag leaf length (cm), flag leaf width (cm), number of tillers per hill, number of panicles per hill, panicle length (cm), spikelets per panicle, biomass (g), harvest index (%), test weight (g), and grain yield per hill (g). From the present investigation, it is concluded that analysis of variance showed significant variation among different genotypes for all characters studied. Positive and significant correlation was observed for plant height, flag leaf length, flag leaf width, spikelets per panicle, biomass, test weight and harvest index with grain yield per hill at genotypic and phenotypic levels. Days to maturity, number of panicles per hill, biomass, harvest index, test weight and flag leaf width exhibited direct positive effect at phenotypic level. This indicated that grain yield was mainly a product of direct and indirect effects of the above attributing characters and priority should be given to these characters during selection for improvement in rice.