Characterization of Rice (Oryza Sativa L.) Germplasm Through Various Agro-Morphological Traits

Scientia Agriculturae www.pscipub.com/sa E-ISSN: 2310-953X / P-ISSN: 2311-0228 DOI: 10.15192/PSCP.SA.2015.9.2.8388 Sci. Agri. 9 (2), 2015: 83-88 PSCI Publications Characterization of Rice (Oryza Sativa L.) Germplasm Through Various Agro-Morphological Traits Muhammad Sajid 1, Shahid Ali Khan 2*, Haris Khurshid 2, Javed Iqbal 3, Ali Muhammad 1, Noor Saleem 3, Syed Mehar Ali Shah 1 1. Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Agricultural University, Peshawar, Pakistan 2. Plant Genetic Resources Institute, NARC, Islamabad, Pakistan 3. Department of Biotechnology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan Corresponding author email: shahidalikhan29@yahoo.com Paper Information Received: 27 October, 2014 Accepted: 27 January, 2015 Published: 20 February, 2015 Citation Muhammad S, Shahid AK, Haris Kh, Javed I, Ali Muhammad NS, Syed Mehar AS. 2015. Characterization of Rice (Oryza Sativa L.) Germplasm Through Various Agro-Morphological Traits. Scientia Agriculturae, 9 (2), 83-88. Retrieved from www.pscipub.com (DOI: 10.15192/PSCP.SA.2015.9.2.8388) Key words: Germplasm; RCBD; Genetic variation; Significant differences. A B S T R A C T The present study was conducted to characterize the indigenous rice germplasm on the basis of morphological characteristics at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Agricultural University Peshawar. The germplasm consisted of 30 rice accessions were planted in randomized complete block design (RCBD). The data were recorded on 32 different agro-morphological traits (15 qualitative and 17 quantitative). The rice germplasm exhibited sufficient genetic variation for most of the qualitative and quantitative traits. Variation was observed for all the qualitative traits except anther color and ligule shape. Highly significant differences (p<0.01) were observed for the traits of flag leaf length, flag leaf breadth, culm length, days to 50% flowering, panicle length, length of primary branches panicle- 1, secondary branches panicle-1, grain length, grain width, awn length and percent leaf lession while significant differences (p<0.05) were observed for peduncle length and primary branches panicle-1. Rice accession 6531 took minimum days (95) in reaching to 50% flowering while accession 6512 displayed maximum panicle length (35.37 cm). Rice accession 6508 showed the highest values for flag leaf length (59.95 cm), primary branches panicle-1 (13), secondary branches panicle-1 (51), spikelets panicle-1 (240), and grain width (3.06 mm). The genetic potential of accessions 6508, 6547, 6512 and 6531 on account of excellent performance for various traits can be used in future rice breeding programs. 2015 PSCI Publisher All rights reserved. Introduction Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most important food crops grown worldwide. It is the staple food for half of the world s population. On global basis, it is planted on area of 159 million hectares with production of 685 million tons. China is the leading one in production (193 million tons), followed by India (148 million tons), Indonesia (60 million tons), Bangladesh (47 million tons), Vietnam (48 million tons) and Thailand (30 million tons) (FAOSTST, 2010). On out of the total arable land of the globe, approximately 11% is cultivated on rice annually, and it is second after wheat in its ranks (Chakravarthi & Naravaneni, 2006; Bashir et al., 2010). The rice genus, Oryza consists of two cultivated species and more than 20 wild species. The cultivated species are Oryza sativa (2n= 24 AA) is grown worldwide and Oryza glaberrima (2n=24 AA) is planted on a limited scale in West Africa. Wild species (2n=24 or 48) represented by AA, BB, CC, BBCC, CCDD, EE, FF, GG and HHJJ genomes (Vaughan, 1989). Due the prominent and valuable role of rice in food security throughout the globe different efforts are being made to increase rice productivity and valuable achievements are made. Approximately 90% of the world s rice is grown in the Asian continent and constitutes a staple food for 2.7 billion people worldwide (Salim et al., 2003). Moreover, it is a nutritional cereal crop, providing 20% of the calories and 15% of proteins consumed by world s population. Although it is a chief source of carbohydrates and protein in Asia, it also provides minerals and fibers. Apart from these it is also an important source for animal feed in many countries of the world. Being an agricultural country Pakistan has natural abundance of all agricultural products including food items. Rice is the second most important food crop in Pakistan, not only in respect of local consumptions but also in view of large exports. Presently rice is grown on an area of 2.9 million hectares with a production of 6.9 million tons with the average yield of 2387 kg hectare-1. Of the total rice grown throughout the country, 68% is grown in Punjab, 23% in Sindh, 6% in Balochistan and 3% in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (MINFAL, 2009).

In Pakistan rice is mainly grown in four distinct agro-ecological zones. The first zone consists of northern mountainous regions including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), where rice is cultivated in cooler and high altitude areas. The second zone lies in the broad strip of irrigated land between Ravi and Chenab rivers. The third and the fourth zones consist of the west bank of Indus delta (Salim et al., 2003). Rice accessions, lines and old cultivars are important reservoirs of useful genes and can be used to enrich the commercial rice cultivars with the desired genes for useful traits (Zeng et al., 2003). However landraces and accessions are heterogeneous and include several genotypes within a population (Frankel and Soule 1981). The only way to ensure food security for future generations is to exploit the present day genetic diversity of different crops and to identify the promising one for future breeding programs. The present investigation was carried out to characterize indigenous rice germplasm through qualitative and quantitative traits and to identify desirable genotypes for future use in breeding programs. Materials And Methods The current research study was conducted Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Agricultural University, Peshawar Pakistan during rice crop growing season. Thirty rice accessions were characterized through 32 different agro-morphological traits (15 qualitative and 17 quantitative). Rice genotypes used in this study are listed in the Table1. Seeding was done in the well prepared seed beds in the first week of June. The seedlings were transplanted into well puddled field one month after seeding. Each accession was planted in two rows, with row length of one meter and row-row distance of 30 cm using randomized complete block design (RCBD) with two replications. Among the 32 traits 15 qualitative traits on which the data were recorded were Basal leaf sheath color, Flag leaf angle, Ligule color, Ligule shape, Auricle color, Culm angle, Internode color, Node color, Collar color, Awning, Awn color, Anther color, Grain shape, Seed coat color and Stigma color. Similarly, among the studied 17 quantitative traits were Flag leaf length (cm), Flag leaf breath (cm), Culm length (cm), Peduncle length (cm), Days to 50 % flowering, Panicle length (cm), Primary branches panicle-1, Secondary branches panicle-1, Spikelets panicle-1, Length of primary branches (cm), Grain length (mm), Grain width (mm), Awn length (cm), 1000-grain weight (g), Biological yield plot-1 (kg), Grain yield plot-1 (kg) and Percent leaf lesion. The data were collected on five randomly selected plants from each accession. Recommended cultural practices as used for growing rice crop were used throughout the experiment. Table 1. List of rice genotypes used in the current study. S. No. Accession No S. No Accession No 1 6505 16 6525 2 6506 17 6526 3 6507 18 6527 4 6508 19 6529 5 6509 20 6531 6 6512 21 6535 7 6514 22 6536 8 6515 23 6537 9 6516 24 6538 10 6517 25 6540 11 6519 26 6541 12 6520 27 6542 13 6521 28 6545 14 6522 29 6546 15 6523 30 6547 Data analysis Mean values of accessions were used for analysis. Simple statistical parameters i.e. mean and variance was determined for all the quantitative traits using statistical package MstatC. The data after compiling was statistically analyzed using MstatC package version 1.2 and least significance difference (LSD) test was applied to test the significance of genotypic differences. Results And Discussion A: Qualitative traits Leaf traits Rice genotypes were characterized for leaf traits at late vegetative and flowering stages and divergence was observed among the accessions for basal leaf sheath color. Accessions 6505, 6508, 6535 and 6546 showed green color while the remaining purple lines basal leaf sheath color was noted. Similarly for flag leaf angle, accessions 6517, 6522, 6535, 6537, 6541, 6542, 6546 and 6547 were found to have intermediate flag leaf angle while in the remaining accessions erect flag leaf angle. For collar color accessions 6509, 6521 and 6536 showed green collar color while all the remaining accessions were observed with pale green color. Ligule color of accession 6506 was observed purple, among 6505, 6507, 6508, 6514, 6515, 6525, 6536, 6537, 6541 and 6547 purple lines ligule color was found, while ligule color of the remaining accessions was white. There was no divergence found in ligule shape for the studied rice accessions. All the accessions were observed 2-clefted. For auricle color the accessions 6505, 6507, 6515 and 6527 showed purple auricle color, while the remaining accessions showed pale green auricle color. 84

Culm traits Culm angle is an indicator of the growth habit of a particular species. During current study valuable variation was observed among the accessions for culm angle. Accession 6531 was found to have open, and accessions 6541, 6542 and 6546 showed intermediate angle while in the remaining accessions erect culm angle was observed. Internode color of all the accessions was observed light gold except a single accession 6541 that showed green internode color. Variation was observed among the accessions for node color. Among all of the studied accessions showed green node color except 6529, 6531, 6535, 6536, 6545 and 6546 that were found to have light gold node color. Grain traits Anther color of all the rice accessions was yellow with no divergence among all the studied genotypes. Stigma color of rice accessions 6509, 6546 and 6547 was observed green, accessions 6522, 6523, 6527, 6540 and 6542 showed yellow stigma color while the remaining accessions were observed with light green stigma color. Variation was found among the studied rice accessions for grain shape, accessions 6508, 6525 and 6531 were found to have medium grain shape while in the remaining rice accessions slender grain shape was found. In accessions 6507 and 6508 brown seed coat color while light brown for the remaining rice accessions was observed. The rice accessions 6505, 6506, 6520, 6521, 6523 and 6547 were observed with short and partial awns, whereas, accessions 6542 and 6545 were observed as long and partially awned. Similarly, accessions 6531, 6535, 6536, 6537, 6540 and 6546 were observed awnless while the remaining rice accessions were observed long and fully awned. In accessions 6507, 6525 displayed gold awn color and Purple awn color was observed for accession 6547. Table 2. Mean values for flag leaf length (FLL), flag leaf breadth (FLB), culm length (CL), peduncle length (PL), days to 50% flowering (DF), panicle length (PAL), primary branches panicle -1 (PB), length of primary branches Panicle-1(MLPBP) and secondary branches panicle - 1 (SB). FLL FLB CL PL DF PAL MLPBP cc. No. (cm) (cm) (cm) (cm) (cm) PB (cm) SB 6505 49.57 1.62 114 40.56 117 34.2 8.5 14.53 27 6506 40.95 1.74 122.3 46.73 104 30.79 10.3 13.16 36.5 6507 40.68 1.71 110.2 46.23 103 34.01 11.3 14.34 44.5 6508 59.95 1.62 113.13 45.48 110 34.78 12.6 12.86 50.6 6509 41.32 1.59 110.98 52 118 33.98 10.6 13.44 28.6 6512 37.98 1.63 141.32 46.76 112 35.37 10.5 13.71 33.3 6514 40.78 1.30 138.4 50.3 117 30.28 10.3 12.16 26.6 6515 36.20 1.40 133.3 48.4 112 34.42 10.5 12.58 31.8 6516 40.75 1.68 133.2 45.5 110 33.46 9.7 12.53 30.7 6517 38.37 1.64 123.75 44.12 111 31.69 9.7 13.72 32.3 6519 45.10 1.81 124.9 47.9 114 30.8 10.1 13.36 29.9 6520 52.43 1.43 128.65 44.61 110 31.63 10.1 13.93 30.1 6521 41.10 1.66 140.68 47.85 111 35.03 10.2 13.72 32.1 6522 45.48 1.51 127.6 44.59 102 30.04 10.1 12.12 38 6523 48.17 2.69 130.25 45.46 108 32.85 11 13.07 33 6525 37.80 1.57 121.5 44.84 105 30.59 10.2 13.12 30.7 6526 45.20 1.76 135.1 46.48 112 30.59 9.3 13.59 37.6 6527 46.95 2.78 134.9 49.94 113 31.48 11 12.86 42.1 6529 43.43 1.99 135.1 40.44 111 29.88 9.5 13.2 31.5 6531 37.35 1.47 107.7 43.66 95 22.22 9.7 12.38 29 6535 41.83 1.52 125.3 48.55 103 30.06 10.5 11.77 26.4 6536 45.18 1.32 120.4 46.04 104 29.42 10.3 11.37 27.5 6537 41.93 1.46 129.06 51.05 103 28.63 10 13.46 33.4 6538 41.97 1.64 129.6 42.08 111 32.96 10.5 13.34 37 6540 43.72 1.52 126.08 45.6 112 30.65 10.7 12.9 36.1 6541 43.38 1.71 120.84 39.64 115 26.08 11.4 13.74 44 6542 50.30 1.79 128.74 46.14 111 32.42 10.7 14.21 40 6545 51.17 1.63 141.98 44.18 112 33.83 10.1 13.2 38.3 6546 42.38 1.51 131.08 53.68 117 34.42 11.3 11.93 28.5 6547 38.55 1.37 134.08 47.29 110 33.14 9.5 15.56 33.4 CV% 2.98 6.55 6.41 6.81 1.22 5.66 6.93 5.6 14.33 LSD (0.05) 2.66 0.23 16.67 6.44 2.73 3.67 1.46 1.51 9.96 B: Quantitative traits Leaf traits Highly significant differences were observed for flag leaf length and breadth among rice genotypes at probability level of (P<0.01). Flag leaf length among the rice accessions varied from 36.20 to 59.95cm. Minimum value (36.20cm) of flag leaf length was found for accession 6515 whereas accession 6508 displayed maximum value (59.95cm) of flag leaf length with an average of 43.65cm. Flag leaf breadth among rice genotypes was ranged from 1.30 to 2.78cm. Rice accessions 6514 showed minimum flag leaf breadth (1.30cm) and thus representing the most narrowed leaf among the rice 85

genotypes whereas maximum value of flag leaf breadth (2.78cm) was observed for accession 6527 with an average of 1.47cm (Table 2). Highly significant differences at (P<0.01) were observed among rice genotypes for percent leaf lesion. The rice accession 6545 showed a minimum value of 28% for leaf lession whereas the rice accession 6531 was observed with a maximum value of 84% for leaf lession, while the average leaf lession observed was 58% (Table 3). Culm traits Highly significant differences at (P<0.01) were observed among rice accessions for culm length. Culm length among the rice accessions was ranged from 107.7 to 141.98cm. Accession 6531 showed minimum value (107.7cm) for culm length while accession 6545 observed with maximum value (141.98cm) for culm length with an average of 127.13cm. Significant differences at (P<0.05) were observed among rice genotypes for peduncle length. Peduncle length among the rice accessions ranged from 39.64 to 53.68cm. The rice accession 6541 showed minimum value (39.64cm) for peduncle length whereas 6546 displayed maximum value (53.68cm) for peduncle length with an average of 46.20cm (Table 2). Flowering traits Highly significant differences at (P<0.01) were observed for days to 50% flowering. Days to 50% flowering among the rice genotypes ranged from 95 to 118 days. The accession 6531 took minimum days (95) to 50 % flowering while accession 6509 exhibited maximum days (118) to 50 % flowering. Most of the rice accessions took more than 109 days to 50 % flowering (Table 2). Panicle traits Highly significant differences were observed among rice genotypes at probability level of (P<0.01) for panicle length, length of primary branches panicle -1 and secondary branches panicle -1. Panicle length among the rice genotypes varied from 22.22 to 35.37cm. The accession 6531 exhibited minimum panicle length (22.22cm) whereas genotype 6512 showed maximum value of 35.37cm for panicle length with an average of 31.73cm. Variation was recorded for mean length of primary branches panicle -1. Mean length of primary branches panicle -1 ranged from 11.37 to 15.56cm. The accession 6536 showed minimum mean length of primary branches panicle -1 (11.37cm) while accession 6547 exhibited maximum mean length of primary branches panicle -1 (15.56cm) with an average of 13.20cm. Secondary branches panicle -1 among the rice accessions ranged from 26 to 51. The accession 6535 showed minimum secondary branches panicle -1 (26) while the accession 6508 showed 51 maximum secondary branches panicle -1 with an average of 34 branches panicle -1. Significant differences at (P<0.05) were observed among rice genotypes for primary branches panicle -1. Primary branches ranged from 9 to 13. The accession 6505 and 6526 exhibited minimum primary branches panicle -1 (9), whereas accession 6508 showed maximum branches panicle -1 (13) with an average of 10 primary branches panicle -1 (Table 2). Spikelets panicle -1 among rice accessions ranged from 156 to 240. The accessions 6505 and 6514 showed minimum spikelets panicle-1 (156) while accession 6508 recorded maximum (240) with an average of 189 spikelets panicle-1 (Table 3). Grain traits Highly significant differences at (P<0.01) were observed for grain length, grain width and awn length. Range of grain length among the rice genotypes varied from 6.85 to 9.01 mm. The accession 6506 showed minimum grain length (6.85 mm) whereas accession 6546 exhibited maximum grain length (9.01 mm) with an average of 8.17mm. Grain width among the rice genotypes varied from 1.72 to 3.06 mm. Minimum value of grain width (1.72mm) was recorded for the accession 6538, while the accession 6508 showed maximum grain width (3.06 mm) with an average of 2.17mm. Differences were found among rice accessions for awn length. Rice accessions 6531, 6535, 6536, 6537, 6540 and 6546 were observed awnless, whereas rice accession 6547 showed minimum awn length (1.59cm) while the accession 6509 was observed with maximum awn length (4.04cm) with an average of 2.45cm (Table 3). Yield traits Valuable variation was observed among rice accessions for biological yield plot -1. Biological yield plot -1 ranged from 2.15 to 4.55kg. Minimum biological yield (2.15kg) was observed for accession 6535 while maximum biological yield plot -1 (4.55 kg) was found for accession 6536 with an average of 3.35kg (Table 3). Range of grain yield among the rice genotypes was from 0.4 to 1.05 kg. The accession 6520 exhibited minimum grain yield 0.4kg, whereas the accession 6547 showed maximum grain yield of 1.05kg with an average grain yield of 0.61kg. 1000-grains weight ranged from the studied genotypes were found within the range of 20.2 to 26.45gm. The accession 6547 exhibited minimum 1000-grain weight (20.2g), whereas accession 6537 showed maximum (26.45gm) 1000-grain weight with an average of 22.99g (Table 3). The rice germplasm used in the present study displayed variability for most of the studied traits with the exception of ligule and anther colors. Marked variation was observed for culm length, flag leaf length, secondary branches panicle -1, length of primary branches panicle -1, panicle length, grain length and days to 50% flowering. 86

Characterization of crop germplasm through different morphological traits is an important step for assessment of its genetic potential. Our present finding shows great genetic potential of the studied genotypes. The promising genotypes identified during the current study have the potential to be used in future breeding programs for getting productive and quality results. During the current study for most of the qualitative and quantitative traits highly significant and positive differences were found. Our results are in close agreement with those of Pandey et al., (2009), who recorded highly significant variability among the different rice genotypes. Similarly the finding of Wang et al., (2006) also gives support to the current findings. The current results of agro-morphological evaluation of rice germplasm are supported by the study of Caldo et al., (1996). The findings of Chandra et al., (2007) and Abarshahr et al., (2011) further strengthen the current findings, who also found valuable and highly significant and positive variability among their studied genotypes. Table 3. Mean values for spikelets panicle -1 (SPK), grain length (GL), grain width (GW), awn length (AL), biological yield (BY), 1000-grain weight (TGW), percent leaf lession (LL) and grain yield (GY) of rice accessions used in the current study. Acc. No. SPK GL (mm) GW (mm) AL (cm) BY (kg) TGW (g) LL (%) GY (kg) 6505 156.1 8.82 2.47 2.22 2.35 22.1 66 0.6 6506 2.9 6.85 2.18 2.75 2.45 20.75 75 0.5 6507 217.8 8.08 2.13 2.04 2.9 23.75 57 0.55 6508 239.9 8.15 3.06 2.92 2.85 24.95 64 0.75 6509 182.1 8.22 2.17 4.04 3.75 23 57 0.7 6512 180.2 7.88 2.32 2.70 3.05 20.8 65 0.65 6514 156.2 8.10 2.12 3. 3.1 24.3 66 0.5 6515 182.9 8.57 2.22 2.10 3.55 24.85 52 0.75 6516 177.4 8.13 2.20 2.46 4.2 24.6 69 0.65 6517 174 7.90 2.15 2.14 4.15 22 49 0.75 6519 170 8.05 2.15 2.55 3.05 22.65 65 0.6 6520 173 8.35 2.17 2.30 3.1 22.65 57 0.4 6521 178.7 8.13 2.10 2.31 3.1 20.4 69 0.55 6522 170 7.96 2.03 1.70 2.95 21.55 71 0.65 6523 191.4 8.15 2.07 1.83 3.15 21 71 0.65 6525 197.5 8.03 2.40 3.61 3.85 23.65 79 0.7 6526 196.3 8.09 2.10 2.01 3.6 26.15 82 0.6 6527 202.4 8.32 2.05 1.95 3.75 26.35 73 0.6 6529 198.5 8.05 2.02 2.79 3.8 22.45 65 0.5 6531 162.8 8.01 2.41-2.35 24.9 84 0.45 6535 159.2 7.25 1.82-2.15 23 56 0.45 6536 163.3 8.33 2.37-4.55 24.15 37 0.6 6537 194.1 8.31 2.25-3.25 26.45 45 0.6 6538 212.1 8.84 1.72 3.01 3.75 23.2 30 0.5 6540 201 8.20 2.15-3.2 21.9 56 0.6 6541 235 8.28 2.15 2.03 3.45 21 47 0.65 6542 213 8.48 2.08 2.69 3.15 23.75 44 0.65 6545 215.4 8.10 2.05 2.03 3.85 21.55 28 0.55 6546 183.9 9.01 2.11-3.7 21.65 35 0.75 6547 180.5 8.33 1.93 1.59 4.4 20.2 35 1.05 CV% _ 1.31 2.66 8.35 4.63 _ LSD (0.05) _ 0.219 0.118 0.335 5.525 _ Table 4. Mean squares for flag leaf length (FLL), flag leaf breadth (FLB), culm length (CL), peduncle length (PL), days to 50% flowering (DF), panicle length (PAL), primary branches panicle -1 (PB), mean length of primary branches panicle -1 (MLPBP) and secondary branches panicle -1 (SB) of 30 rice accessions studied during the current study. SOV DF FLL FLB CL PL DF PAL PB MLPBP SB Replications 1 18.59 0.1 238.72 18.50 1.067 30.51 0.451 1.70 1.60 Genotypes 29 54.56** 0.215** 175.0** 21.41* 57.65** 15.2** 1.16* 1.56** 70.09** Error 29 1.699 0.012 66.50 9.91 1.791 3.22 0.51 0.54 23.74 ** =Highly significant, * = Significant Table 5. Mean squares for spikelets panicle -1 (SPK), grain length (GL), grain width (GW), awn length (AL), biological yield (BY), 1000-grain weight (TGW), percent leaf lession (%LL) and grain yield (GY) of 30 rice accessions studied during the current research work. SOV DF SPK GL GW AL BY TGW %LL GY Replications 1 619.53 0.6 0.048 0.037 0.043 3.851 2.40 0.024 Genotypes 29 976.02 NS 0.335** 0.11** 2.53** 0.736 NS 6.423 NS 476.64** 0.031 NS Error 29 802.60 0.012 0.3 0.027 0.534 6.916 7.29 0.026 ** =Highly significant, * = Significant, NS = Non Significant 87

Conclusions The present study revealed sufficient genetic divergence for various qualitative and quantitative traits. Rice accession 6531 took minimum days to 50% flowering while accession 6512 showed superiority for panicle length. Accession 6536 showed superiority for biological yield. Rice accession 6547 showed excellent performance for grain yield while accession 6537 showed the maximum value for 1000-grain yield. Similarly, the rice accession 6508 showed superiority for flag leaf length, primary branches panicle -1, secondary branches panicle -1, maximum number of spikelets panicle -1, as well as the maximum grain width and accessions 6508, 6512, 6536, 6537 and 6547 showed superiority for various traits. The genetic potential of the mentioned accessions for the desired traits can be utilized in future rice breeding programs to get promising results. Acknowledgments The authors are acknowledges the Gene Bank of Plant Genetic Resources Institute of National Agricultural Research Centre, Islamabad for providing the seed materials used during the current study and are also thankful to the Agricultural University, Peshawar for providing the field facility to carry out the experiment. References Abarshahr MB, Rabiei, Lahigi HS. 2011. Assessing genetic diversity of rice varieties under drought stress conditions, Notulae Scientia Biologicae, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 114 123. Bashir MU, Akbar N, Iqbal A, Zaman H. 2010. Effect of different sowing dates on yield and yield components of direct seeded coarse rice (Oryza sativa L). Pak. J. Agri. Sci., 47: 361-365. Caldo R, Sebastian L, Hernandez J. 1996. Morphology-based genetic diversity analysis of ancestral lines of Philippine rice cultivars, Philippine Journal of Crop Science, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 86 92. Chakravarthi BK, Naravaneni R. 2006. SSR marker based DNA fingerprinting and diversity study in rice (Oryza sativa. L). Afr. J. Biotech., 5: 684-688. Chandra R, Pradhan S, Singh S, Bose L, Singh O. 2007. Multivariate analysis in upland rice genotypes, World Journal of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 295 300. FAOSTAT. 2010. Available at http://faostat.fao.org. Frankel OH, Soule ME. 1981. Conservation and Evolution. Cambridge University Press, New York, pp 327. MINFAL. 2009. Statistics of Pakistan, Ministry of food, agriculture and livestock Islamabad. Pandey P, John Anurag P, Tiwari DK, Yadav SK, Kumar B. 2009. Genetic variability, diversity and association of quantitative traits with grain yield in rice (Oryza sativa L.), Journal of Bio-Science, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 77 82. Salim M, Akram M, Akhtar ME, Ashraf M. 2003. In: M.T. Saleem (ed), Rice: A production Handbooh. Pakistan Agric. Res. Council, Islamabad. Vaughan DA. 1989. The genus Oryza L. Current status of taxonomy. IRRI Research Paper Serial Number 138. Wang JL, Gao YB, Zhao, et al. 2006. Morphological and RAPD analysis of the dominant species Stipa krylovii Roshev. in InnerMongolia steppe, Botanical Studies, vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 23 35. Zeng YW, Shen SQ, Li ZC, Yang ZY, Wang XK, Zhang HL, Wen GS. 2003. Ecogeographic and Genetic diversity based on morphological character of indigenous rice (O. sativa L.) in Yunnan, China. Resour. Crop Evol. 50: 566-577. 88