Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, C. S. Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur
**Present Address—Haryana Agricultural University, Hissar and Narendra Dev University of Agriculture and Technology, Faizabad.
*Part of the thesis submitted by Senior Author for Ph.D. Degree of Kanpur University.
Nature and magnitude of genetic divergence was assessed in 43 varieties of rice using D2 statistic. Although the materials were product of only few crosses and bred under uridirectional selection force yet they exhibited sufficient diversity. The population was grouped into 16 clusters. The D2 statistic was found useful as conventional morphological and physiological groups like tall, dwarf, early, medium and late etc., were discriminated into further clusters. Maturity time, plant height and tillers contributed most to divergence. The assessment of genetic diversity is likely to be more fruitful in elite materials. From this point of view ‘Vijayd, ‘Sona’, ‘IR 8’ and ‘IR 24’ were found most promising materials and should be used in further crossing programme in rice.
