Deciphering Variability and Genetic Parameters in Traditional Scented Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Genotypes of Kerala, India

Gandhakasala and Jeerakasala, the most popular traditional scented rice cultivars of Wayanad district in Kerala were used to assess the nature and magnitude of variability and genetic parameters in this investigation. The study on twenty yield and associated quantitative, cooking and biochemical characters revealed significant differences among genotypes for each character except for leaf width indicating the presence of high genetic variability among the genotypes. Phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variations showed high level of variability for grain yield (42.19%), number of spikelets panicle-1 (31.36%) and test weight (26.23%) and moderate level of variability for leaf length, culm number, culm length, number of productive tillers, number of spikelets panicle-1, panicle length, straw yield, grain length, grain width, amylose content and protein content. For most of the characters studied, the difference between GCV and PCV was narrow, indicating that environmental factors have little influence on these characters and are highly influenced by genetic factors. Heritability estimations ranged from low to high (17.86% to 99.90%). Characters like leaf length, culm number, number of spikelets panicle-1 and straw yield showed high heritability along with high genetic advance reflecting that these characters were under additive gene action and these could be the desirable characters for effective selection for developing high yielding scented rice varieties. This study provides information about the genetic variability and heritability measures of the various yield and related characters which may help to establish the selection criteria for future improvement in short grain scented rice breeding programmes.