Trait relationship and path analysis under sodicity in Nagina 22 rice mutants

The present study was conducted for evaluating EMS induced mutants for sodicity tolerance in rice. A set of 402 Nagina 22 rice mutants along with three sodicity tolerant check varieties namely TRY2, TRY3 and TRY4 were screened at Anbil Dharmalingam Agricultural College and Research Institute, Trichy under sodic soil condition and also screened under hydroponics condition at the seedling stage. A total of 13 biometrical traits and salt injury scores were recorded and subjected to association analysis and path analysis. Correlation analysis showed that there was a significant and positive correlation observed for flag leaf length, flag leaf breadth, the number of total tillers per plant, the number of productive tillers for the plant, tillering efficiency percentage, panicle length, panicle weight, panicle harvest index and hundred seed weight and also showed significant and negative correlation for salt injury index and vegetative vigour. Both the scores at the field (vegetative vigour) and salt injury score showed a negative correlation with single plant yield. Path analysis revealed a high positive direct effect on the number of productive tillers per plant, panicle weight, hundred seed weight and panicle length and the remaining traits showed negligible effects on single plant yield. As a result, enhancing the correlating trait as well as reducing the effect of negative correlating trait leads to the development of better tolerant varieties.