Correlation and Path Coefficient Analysis for Yield and Yield Components in F2 Segregating Populations of Rice (Scientific Note)

A study was performed to determine the relationship between grain yield and yield components at five F2 populations in Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University in 2014. In this study 10 traits including grain yield, number of panicles per plant, number of filled grains per panicle, 100 grains weight, plant height, grain length, grain width, number of non-filled grains per panicle, grain yield and panicle length were assessed. Results showed that plant height, Panicle length and number of panicles per plant correlated significantly with grain yield while grain yield negatively associated with non-filled grains per panicle. Path coefficient analysis revealed that grain yield was associated with number of filled grains per panicle, number of panicles per plant and plant height with the direct effects of 0.32, 0.30 and 0.29, respectively. Also the greatest indirect effect belonged to total number of grains (0.17) through filled grains per panicle. Stepwise regression analysis showed that 37.2 percent of yield variation could be explained by five characteristics named filled grains per panicle, panicle length, plant height, non-filled grains per panicle and grain width. According to the results obtained in these study traits such as plant height, panicle length, number of panicles per plant and number of filled grains per panicle are suggested as selection indices for grain yield improvement at segregating F2 populations of rice.