Divergence studies in fine scented genotypes of rice for yield and quality characters

Rice is a cleistogamous cereal crop in the Gramineae family of the Cyperales order. It is a main food all over the world and a big source of calories. The yield and quality are the two most important characters for consumption and in international markets. The current study was aimed to evaluate diversity among the 21 quality and agronomic characters and to discovery elite parents for further hybridization programmes. With a 7.68m2 net plot scale, the study used a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications and 20 cm×15 cm spacing between row to plant. On a plot basis, factors such as grains yield per plot, panicles per metre square, tillers/square metre, test weight, harvest index, and days to 50% flowering were measured. Effective tiller count, panicle length, plant height, and total number of filled grains/panicle were all determined by randomly selecting five plants from each plot. Clusters were divided using the Unweighted variable Pair Group Method of the Average Linkage Cluster Analysis (UPGMA) and Euclidean distance as the dissimilarity index by using XLSTAT 2021 statistical software. Coefficient of variation revealed that quality characters showed huge amount of variation among the genotypes. The largest cluster, Cluster I, had 14 genotypes followed by clusters II, III, IV, and V. The intra cluster distance varied between 33.45 (cluster III) and 50.15 (cluster IV). Cluster V and II had the greatest inter cluster gap (100.40), while cluster II and I had the smallest (19.29).