Association Studies in Red Rice Mutant Lines of IRGA-318-11-6-9-2B

Rice is the important cereal food crop. It provides 20% of the world's dietary energy and predominant dietary energy source. It is estimated that the demand for rice will be 137.30 million tonnes by 2050. In order to achieve this, the production per unit area needs to be increased by mutation in turn creating variation. Induced mutants were grown in the field during Kharif 2022 at the Zonal Agricultural and Horticultural Research Station, Brahmavar, Udupi District, Karnataka the results showed grain yield had positive correlations with several traits including number of productive tillers, number of grains per panicle, panicle weight, spikelet fertility, flag leaf length and width but negative correlations with days to fifty per cent flowering, days to maturity, and plant height. Days to maturity, flag leaf length, plant height, panicle weight, number of productive tillers per plant per plant, number of grains per panicle, spikelet fertility and grain length showed a direct positive effect on grain yield. This indicated the effectiveness of direct selection for these traits in improvement of grain yield per plant. Days to fifty per cent flowering, flag leaf width, panicle length, test weight, number of filled grains per panicle, panicle length, and grain breadth had negative direct effects on grain yield per plant.