Vol. 9, Special Issue 1, Part M (2025)

Sixty-four rice genotypes were evaluated to estimate the magnitude of diversity associated with them using D² analysis to discover the diversity of genotypes. The analysis of 11 quantitative and 6 quality traits resulted in 7 different clusters from 64 rice genotypes, in which the maximum intra-cluster distance was recorded for cluster II (3.175) and maximum inter-cluster distance was found between cluster IV and cluster VII (6.332). The cluster V constituted 18 genotypes forming the largest cluster. Cluster VII with 9 genotypes exhibits the highest mean performance for the characters like the number of effective tillers, flag leaf length, grain length, grain L: B ratio, kernel length, kernel L: B ratio, biological yield and grain yield. Grain L: B ratio with 7.56% had the highest contribution towards genetic diversity. Grain yield ranged from 24.43 q/ha to 48.18 q/ha with a mean of 35.55 q/ha. Genotype RNR 35989 (48.18 q/ha), HKR 18-63 (48.15 q/ha), JGL 41255 (47.09 q/ha), BKR 421 (46.87 q/ha) and CSR 2021-E-294-153 (43.57 q/ha) were found to be high yielding. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance was reported for characters like flag leaf length, number of filled grains per panicle, test weight, biological yield, and grain yield. PCV values were found to be slightly higher than GCV values showing the influence of environment on character expression. A correlation study revealed that selection based on biological yield, harvest index, number of effective tillers per plant, flag leaf length and number of filled grains per panicle would be effective for increasing the grain yield of rice.