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Abstract The genetic diversity of rice grains plays a vital role in rice variety selection decisions as it influences consumer preference, market demand and yield potential. The present work was an attempt to study the genetic diversity and multivariate analysis of the 50 selected rice genotypes grown during Kharif, 2022 at the P.G. Research Farm, Ranadevi, CUTM, Paralakhemundi lying in the north-eastern ghat zone of Odisha. The study identified significant variation in grain types among different genotypes with 72% having extra-long slender grains, 18% having long bold grains, 8% having long slender grains and 2% having medium slender grains. The findings of the study reveal significant variability in biochemical traits among the genotypes. The results indicate a positive and significant correlation of iron with both copper and manganese. Similarly, manganese showed positive and highly significant correlation with zinc. The genotypes were clustered into five distinct groups based on genetic divergence and Cluster II had maximum number of genotypes (13). The highest distance among the clusters was recorded between Cluster V with Cluster I and II suggesting that the genetic divergence of genotypes within these clusters is distinct compared to those in other clusters. Copper was found to play a crucial role contributing majorly to genetic divergence of the studied genotypes. The principal component analysis identified three majors out of six components which exhibited eigenvalues surpassing 1.0 contributing to a total cumulative variation of 68.95% across the examined variables. The findings of this study suggest the use of some potential genotypes from specific clusters in hybridization programs with the prime objective of enhancing the nutritional quality as well as yield in rice.
Paramanik et al. (Wed,) studied this question.