Title: Evaluation of Hybrid Rice for Variability and Yield Contributing Characters under Allahabad Climatic Condition
Abstract: Rice is the most important food crop after wheat and maize. India, the home of rice, has nearly one third of the world’s rice acreage but still suffers from a chronic shortage of the cereal. The knowledge of genetic variability in a given crop species for characters under improvement is important in any plant breeding programme. Heritability with genetic advances is more helpful in predicting the gain under effective selection. Genetic parameters for yield and its correspondent characters in rice were estimated from a trial with 36 rice hybrids evaluated for eighteen characters related to yield. Analysis of variance revealed high significant differences for all the 18 characters studied. Phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) was higher than genotype coefficient of variation (GCV) for all the characters indicating the little influence of environment on the characters. All the qualitative characters depicted high estimates of heritability, which indicates preponderance of additive gene action in the inheritance of these characters. High to moderate degree of genetic advance was observed for number of filled grains per panicle followed by biological yield per plant. Therefore, the results suggest that these characters can be used for grain yield selection.