Evaluation of rice morphology and agronomic character variability

Abstract

Abstract. Yullianida, Hermanasari R. 2023. Evaluation of rice morphology and agronomic character variability. Pros Sem Nas Masy Biodiv Indon 9: 1-9. Rice germplasm is a source of diversity of rice plant characters which has the potential to be a source of parental in the breeding program to develop new varieties. The rice germplasm collection includes local variety, promising lines, introduced variety, superior variety, and wild-type variety. Variability evaluation of morphological and agronomic characters of rice accessions needs to be carried out as a basis for consideration in formulating strategies for conservation, breeding, management, and sustainable utilization of rice plant genetics. Therefore, 35 rice accessions of seven local varieties, one introduced variety, one promising line, and 26 national varieties were planted at the Muara Experimental Farm, Bogor, in 2022. Evaluation of variability characters was carried out on the morphological characters of leaves, stems, panicles, and grain. In comparison, the evaluation of agronomic characters included plant height, number of tillers, plant age, and phenotypic acceptability. Four-leaf characters, two stem characters, two panicle characters, five-grain characters, and three agronomic characters had good diversity in explaining genotype distribution. These characters form the basis for cluster analysis.