Genetic Divergence Studies in Drought Promising Rice Genotypes based on Quality Characters

Grain quality characteristics of 24 drought promising genotypes were evaluated under irrigated and drought conditions for studying variability and genetic divergence. Differences among the genotypes are observed to be highly signifi cant for all the characters; between the environments head rice recovery, alkali spreading value, water uptake, kernel length after cooking and yield are signifi cant, while genotype x environment interaction is only signifi cant for hulling, milling, head rice recovery and water uptake. Water uptake, alkali spreading value and head rice recovery are governed by additive gene action and contributed maximum towards divergence with kernel length after cooking. The D² analysis revealed that genotypes exhibited considerable diversity and were grouped into seven clusters, where cluster I was the largest and contained 18 genotypes while, rest of the clusters contained single genotypes. Based on clustering pattern and per se performance fi ve genotypes were identifi ed, which may be used in breeding programme to obtain improved genotypes with desirable attributes for stress environments.