Maximizing rice yield gains through component trait analyses in eastern Indo-Gangetic plains of India

Abstract

An investigation was carried out to evaluate the yield performance of a set of 145 indigenous collections of rice along with ten popular varieties as checks in eastern Indo-Gangetic plains of India. The study revealed considerable phenotypic diversity among the accessions for seed yield and its components, besides genotype × environment interactions. Statistical analyses including pooled analysis, biplot analysis and cluster analysis demonstrated significant genetic variability among the accessions for most of the traits studied. The accessions were also screened for major biotic stresses like leaf blast and yellow stem borer and found that 99 accessions were resistant and moderately resistant for leaf blast and 56 accessions showed moderate resistance against yellow stem borer. The study was successful in identifying some highly promising accessions on the basis of their performance for various seed yield component and biotic stress resistance. Among these, IC463183, IC462334, IC577390, IC466655 and IC579017 are particularly worth noting due to their excellence performance for various yield attributes across the years and resistance to both leaf blast and yellow stem borer. Such accessions could be potentially utilized breeding for superior rice cultivars suitable to the eastern Indo-gangetic plains of India.