Evaluation of Exotic Rice Varieties for Genetic Parameters in a Nigerian Agro-Ecology

Aim: The research focused on the performance of six exotic rice genotypes from Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) in a Nigerian agro-ecology.

Study Design: The varieties were evaluated in randomized complete block design replicated three times.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at the research fields Crop, Soil and Pest Management, The Federal University of Technology Akure and Plant Science and Biotechnology Department, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria during the rainy and dry seasons of 2012/2013.

Methodology: During the period the rice varieties were planted to test for their ability to adapt to a Nigerian eco-system. The characters measured include plant height, number of tillers/hill, effective tillers with panicle, tillers without panicle, flag leaf length, panicle length, panicle weight, number of grains per panicle, number of spikelet per panicle, 1000_grain weight, number of filled grains per panicle, number of unfilled grains per panicle, grain length, grain width, number of days to heading, number of days to maturity and grain yield per hill.

Results: Grain yield exhibited significant correlations with number of tillers per hill (0.733), effective tillers with panicle (0.826), panicle length (0.305) and panicle weight (0.339) which is a useful guide for selection in further breeding studies.

Conclusion: This study revealed the significant contributions of number of tillers per hill, effective tillers with panicle, panicle length and panicle weight as the sole determinant of total yield.