CORRELATION STUDY FOR SEEDLING VIGOUR AND YIELD RELATED TRAITS IN SELECTED LAND RACES OF RICE (ORYZA SATIVA. L)

Early seedling vigour is a critical trait in direct-seeded rice systems because it influences crop establishment, weed competitiveness, and yield potential. Seedling vigour is an agronomical trait along with uniform seed germination and essential for proper crop growth and development. It improves the uniformity of the seedlings with good crop stand and establishment ultimately results in better grain yield. The present study was undertaken to assess seedling vigour in 24 rice genotypes with an aim to identify better genotypes exhibiting high seedling vigour traits, we phenotyped the seedling vigour index-related traits viz., germination percentage, root length and shoot length, fresh and dry weights on 7 th day and 14th day in a set of germplasm consisting of landraces, using the paper towel method. The results exhibited shoot length on the 7th, 14th day, root length on the 7th, 14th day, seedling vigour index1,2 on the 7th day, fresh weight on the 7th, 14th day and dry weight on the 7th day showed positive significance among the traits. Correlation estimates revealed the selection of suitable contributing characters for identification of high seedling vigour.