Characterization of morpho-phenological traits in the traditional landraces of rice

The landraces of rice provide a wide range of genetic variations and environmental adaptation and act as excellent genetic resources for crop improvement. Natural germplasm that has been maintained through conservation is in desperate need of rigorous investigation in order to uncover new genes or alleles to introduce into rice breeding programmes. Given this context, an investigation was done to determine the degree of genetic divergence and variability across 31 rice landraces for various productivity, physiological, and grain quality traits. On evaluation of the mean performance of landraces and the infuence of characters in genetic divergence resulted in the identifcation of better landraces viz., Vellaikuruvikar, Karupu Kavuni, Kichidi Samba and Athur Kichadi which are better for both grain yield and quality traits that can be used to create better recombinants, by hybridization. These gene pools could be used in selective breeding to signifcantly enhance the agronomic characters. Out of 20 traits that were investigated,15 traits viz., height of the plant, productive tillers per plant, length of panicle, spikelets per panicle, flled grains per panicle, grain yield per plant, seedling root to shoot ratio, harvest index, head rice recovery, length of the kernel, length to breadth ratio of kernel, breadth of kernel after cooking, length to breadth ratio of kernel after cooking, gelatinization temperature and aroma were noted for high heritability and genetic advancement suggesting that additive gene action predominates, there by opening up a wide range of opportunities for these traits to be improved through simple phenotypic selection.