Correlation and path analysis of morpho-physiological and yield traits in boro rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Thirty rice genotypes of local and exotic origin were analyzed to ascertain the genotypic and phenotypic correlation among 21 morpho-physiological and yield traits and their direct/indirect contribution to grain yield under boro season. The result revealed that grain yield per plant had significant positive correlation with biological yield (0.927**, 0.766**), harvest index (0.748**, 0.658**), days to first flowering (0.459*, 0.377*), panicle length (0.501**, 0.445*), grains per panicle (0.576**, 0.484**) and 1000 grain weight (0.573**, 0.460*) at both genotypic and phenotypic levels. Path coefficient analyses at both genotypic and phenotypic levels revealed high positive direct effect of biological yield (0.7181) and harvest index (0.6382) on grain yield per plant. Thus direct selection for grain yield per plant and indirect selection through these characters would be effective to improve yield in boro rice.