Evaluation of Rice Genotypes for Drought Tolerance

A study was conducted at Rice Breeding section, RAU, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar during kharif to evaluate the rice genotypes (Oryza sativa L.) for drought tolerance. Investigation was carried out on variability, character association, path analysis and genetic divergence for morpho-physiological characters viz, Days to fifty per cent flowering, days to physiological maturity, plant height, flag leaf area, chlorophyll content, number of tillers per plant, leaf rolling at vegetative stage, leaf drying at vegetative stage, relative water content, panicle length, canopy temperature, recovery percentage after stress, drought susceptibility index, number of grains per panicle, 1000 grain weight, harvest index and seed yield per plant. 33 genotypes were grown under two environments viz, stress and normal (non-stressed). The experiment in each environment was laid out in randomized block design with three replications.