Genetic Diversity in Upland Rice Germplasm Accessions (Oryza sativa L.) of Chhattisgarh, India

The present study was undertaken to find out the clustering pattern of 100 rice genotypes for 12 metric traits including five checks. Clustering of genotypes was done by following the method of Non Hierarchical Euclidean cluster analysis. All the genotypes were grouped into eight clusters revealing the presence of considerable amount of genetic diversity in the material for different studied traits. According to the results, Cluster V is having the largest cluster with maximum of 23 genotypes, followed by Cluster I (21 genotypes) and Cluster III (20 genotypes). Cluster VIII is the smallest cluster comprising of only 2 genotypes. On the basis of inter-cluster distance, the most diverse clusters were cluster VIII and IV (7.29), followed by cluster VIII and VI (6.96) which indicated maximum diversity between the genotypes of these clusters. Cluster VIII was characterized by genotypes with early maturity, high tillering capacity, high panicle length, high grain yield, longest grain length and high L/B ratio. Cluster IV was characterized by genotypes having less height and long grains. Cluster VI is represented by genotypes with highest number of filled grains per panicle. The conclusion drawn by the cluster analysis is that high variability was observed in the studied population between the genotypes in different clusters for different characters. The genotypes Banspor and Chingi can be used as potential donors in future hybridization programmes to develop rice variety with good grain yield and quality traits.