Abstract

The coastal region of Nigeria has abundant water naturally good for rice production, which is untapped due to oil exploration. The study was conducted to access the relationship between grain yield (GY) and its components of twenty-six segregating lines for the coastal region of Southern Nigeria. The experiment was conducted at the University of Port Harcourt teaching and Research Institution of Faculty of Agriculture and replicated three times in a complete block design. Data was collected on yield components such as number of tillers per plant, leaf area index (LAI), total GY at maturity, and grain weight per panicle at maturity. About 8 lines had more tiller number than the general mean value (30) at maximum tillering stage of the rice crop, while lines with high effective tiller numbers were IRBW-180 (49) and IRBW-147 (48). GY significantly positively correlated with effective tiller number, grain weight per plant, number of grain per panicle and grain weight per panicle. The cluster analysis for genetic diversity revealed three major groupings (A, B and C). The genotypes in Group A posses the character of high grain weight and Group B posses characters for long panicle and high value of flag LAI (FLAI), which indicates broad leaf for light interception thus enhancing photosynthesis. In Group C, genotypes posses varying characters, however, high value of LAI and tall plant, which indicates tendency of good nutrient utilization. Soil in this region is saline and effect crop performance especially rice, these identified indexes will facility the breeding for this region.

Key words: Oryza sativa L., yield components, yield potential, segregating lines, cluster.