Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2020) 9(10): 92-99 92 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2020.910.013 Genetic Divergence Analysis in Elite Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Germplasm using Agro-morphological Traits Ankit Kumar * , Rajashekar Reddy, Meghana Devi, B. Jalandhar Ram and B. G. Suresh Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, SHUATS, Prayagraj, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Rice belongs to the genus Oryza and the tribe Oryzeae of the family Gramineae (Poaceae). The genus Oryza contains 24 recognized species, of which 22 are wild species and two cultivated species are O. sativa and O. glaberrima. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the staple cereal crops of the world, directly feeding more people than any other crop. It is considered as the ‘Grain of Life’ because it is not only the stable food for more than 70% of the Indians but also a source of livelihood for about 120 million households. In India, rice is grown in 44.16 m.ha, the production level is 115 million tonnes and the productivity is about 2700kg/ha during 2018-19 (Annual report - NRRI-2019). In India, West Bengal stands top in the production of rice with an area of 5.12 m.ha. (11.68% of entire area across India) with production of 14.97 million tonnes (13.26% of entire production) and productivity of 2926kg/ha. (Agriculture statistics at a glance – 2018, DAC&FW, GoI). Uttar Pradesh ranks second in the country in production of rice covering 5.91 m.ha. International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 9 Number 10 (2020) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com The current experimentation was carried out at the field experimentation centre, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Prayagraj, U.P. Thirty two genotypes which include, 29 advanced breeding lines and three checks, were examined for several genetic parameters and genetic divergence among them using D 2 statistics for 13 quantitative characters. The analysis divided the 32 genotypes into seven clusters based on Tocher’s clustering method. Out of the seven clusters formed, cluster I was the largest with eight genotypes and cluster VI and VII were monogenotypic. Highest inter cluster distance was found between cluster II and cluster IV indicating higher diversity between the genotypes of those clusters. Cluster II had highest mean for test weight character and cluster IV had highest mean for number of tillers per hill, number of panicles per hill and number of spikelets per panicle. Hence, hybridization between genotypes of these clusters would yield transgressive segregants. Highest intra-cluster distance was recorded in cluster V. Test weight had the highest heritability and maximum contribution towards divergence where as number of panicles per hill, flag leaf width, number of spikelets per panicle, biological yield and grain yield per hill had no contribution towards divergence. Keywords Rice, Advanced Breeding Lines, D 2 statistics, Divergence, Cluster distance Accepted: 04 September 2020 Available Online: 10 October 2020 Article Info