Genetic Association and Path Coefficient Analysis for Grain Yield Characters in Elite Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Germplasm

The study was carried out to study the correlation and path coefficient analysis for grain yield characters in 36 rice genotypes including one check for 13 quantitative parameters. The experimental material was carried out during Kharif, 2020, in a randomized block design with three replications obtained from the Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, SHUATS, Allahabad, U.P., India. Analysis of variance revealed that there is significant variability among the genotypes. Correlation coefficient analysis at genotype level and phenotypic level revealed that plant height, flag leaf length, flag leaf width, number of tillers per hill, number of panicles per hill, number of spikelets per panicle, biological yield, and harvest index, showed positive significant correlation with grain yield per plant. Path coefficient analysis at both genotypic and phenotypic levels revealed that flag leaf length, number of panicles per hill, days to maturity, biological yield, harvest index and test weight had positive direct effect on grain yield per hill. Biological yield per hill (0.8481) exerted high positive direct effect as well as high positive significant association (0.809**) with grain yield per hill thus this character resulted as most essential direct yield character.