Abstract
Rice occupies a pivotal place in the Indian agriculture and has been grown under diverse ecological conditions and gets exposed to different environmental stresses like salinity, alkalinity and drought. Development of rice varieties for salt affected areas is emphasized on the improvement of rice yield potential in specific environment. However, grain yield mostly depends on net result of yield contributing traits. While information related to the relationship between yield and its components in the breeding program particularly for sodicity is very limited. Hence, the present investigation was carried out to study the correlation and path analysis in 10 parents and their F1 hybrids of rice ( Oryza sativa L.) under sodic environment. Character association of the yield and its attributing traits revealed that significant positive association of grain yield per plant with number of productive tillers per plant, panicle length, spikelet fertility percentage, number of filled grains per panicle, proline content, total chlorophyll content and chlorophyll stability index. The sodicity related traits viz., Na+: K+ ratio and chlorophyll a/b ratio expressed significant negative association with single plant yield. Hence, selection for these traits might improve yield. Investigation on path coefficient analysis showed that number of productive tillers per plant and number of filled grains per panicle expressed high and positive direct effect on grain yield. Hundredgrain weight and Na+: K+ ratio expressed positive and moderate direct effects on single plant yield. The study also inferred that productive tillers per plant and filled grains per panicle contributed equally through direct and indirect effects for yield improvement. Such attributes could be utilized as the selection indices for sodicity tolerance in rice.
Highlights
In India nearly 9.38 million ha area is occupied by saltaffected soils out of which 5.5 million ha are saline soils and 3.88 million ha alkali soils [1]
Significant negative correlation recorded for chlorophyll a/b ratio and shoot Na+: K+ ratio were in close conformity with the results of Arunroj et al [8] for shoot Na+: K+ ratio and Hussein et al [9] for chlorophyll a/b ratio
Selection of plants with less crop chlorophyll a/b ratio and shoot Na+: K+ ratio might help for sodicity tolerance (Hussein et al 2007)
Summary
In India nearly 9.38 million ha area is occupied by saltaffected soils out of which 5.5 million ha are saline soils (including coastal) and 3.88 million ha alkali soils [1]. In Tamil Nadu, out of 4.7 lakh hectares of salt affected soils, about 3.0 lakh hectares are in inland and 1.7 lakh hectares are confined to coastal areas. In inland salt affected soils, about 2.0 lakh hectares are alkali and 1.0 lakh ha are saline in nature. Grain yield is a polygenically controlled character with complex in inheritance [2] It is influenced by number of component characters and environment either directly or indirectly. The knowledge on association among different traits with yield and interrelationship is essential to improve the selection efficiency. Keeping this objective in view, the present study was conducted to observe any influence on correlations among plant attributes under sodic environment
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