CHARACTERIZATION AND EVALUATION OF FINE RICE (Oryza sativa L.) GENOTYPES

Abstract

Nine fine rice genotypes were evaluated to evaluate the heritability, variability of yield and yield contributing characters and to asses the relationship among them. The nine varieties were Salsira, Binni pakri, Bolder, Joitha kathari, Ukni modhu, Salna, Radhuni pagol, BRRI dhan 49 and Katarivog. The experiments were conducted in the Plant Breeding Research Field, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University (HSTU), Dinajpur. The experiment was conducted in the completely randomized block design (RCBD) with three replications. The data collected on the following plant characters-plant height (cm), tillers/hill (maximum vegetative stage), number of grain/panicle, number of non-filled grain/panicle, days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, panicle length (cm), racillae/panicle, spikelet length (mm) and yield (t/ha). The outcomes of the study vividly focused that the yield potential of the fine rice cultivars were low but the highest yield (3.48 t/ha) was obtained from the cultivar, Katarivog followed by Salna (3.17t/ha), BRRI dhan 49 and salsira (3.08t/ha) while joitha katari was the lower performer (2.97 t/ha). Strong but negative relationship was measured between tillers/hill and yield (-0.238) indicated that tillers/hill alone played remarkable influenced to reduce yield in fine rice cultivars. The highest and negative correlated response (-0.238) was paid by tillers/hill and rest all the characters showed positive correlated response with yield and as a single character, In addition, productive non-filled grain no. alone developed strong response to selection (0.653) when yield is considered to be increased. The nonfilled grain number (88.203%) and plant height (76.503%) showed high heritability next to yield and effective panicle length (13.980%) showed low heritability. Most of the characters showed high heritability couple with low genetic advance, but high genetic advance (112.4%) indicated that the character may response well under favorable growing conditions. The highest heritability value (h2 b=88.20366%) was estimated for number of non-filled grain therefore, amenable of grain length by modifying cultural environment is very difficult in fine rice. Nonetheless, the magnitude of heritability for yield (t/ha) was also high ((h2 b=86.567%) but genetic progress under direct selection would offer only 26.65%, consequently direct selection on yield alone would be effective for improving yield potential along with others approaches of plant breeding need to be applied for sustainable improvement of fine rice. The overall result of the study revealed that significant variation among the genotypes for all the characters studied and Selection would be effective for increasing grain yield with simultaneous consideration of tillers/hill and panicle length.