Consumer preference: Crucial in determining the grain Type-Richness in rice varieties grown across Kerala, India

Popularity, preference and acceptability of a variety are dependent on grain qualities among other aspects. With emphasis on development of rice varieties with consumer acceptable grain qualities is gaining momentum, an attempt was made to assess the variability in grain characteristics of traditional as well as high yielding rice varieties grown across Kerala. The analysis of variance revealed existence of highly signifi cant differences among the genotypes for all the grain characteristics studied. Low influence of environment on trait expression was evident from narrow difference observed between phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) and genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV). The results of cluster analysis and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) proved that the varieties were diverse in their grain characteristics. The cluster analysis indicated remarkable homogeneity among the traditional rice varieties for the grain characteristics evaluated. The cooking parameters were best expressed by the short-grain high yielding variety Varsha.