DefinePK

Abstract

The basic understanding and knowledge ofgenetic variability within a plant population are highlyfundamental for its improvement by the plant breeders.Research work was conducted to estimate the extent ofgenetic variability, heritability, and genetic advance aspercent of mean of landrace upland rice accessions that arepredominantly grown in the rainforest agro-ecological zoneof Nigeria. Ten landrace upland rice accessions constitutedthe treatment and were laid in randomized complete blockdesign with three replications in three locations betweenMarch to November 2019. Analysis of variance revealedsignificant differences (P<0.01) among the accessions andthe environments except for the number of tillers per plantwhile accession by environment interaction differs significantly for all the traits though at different levels exceptthe numbers of tillers per plant. Accession 1 recorded thehighest grain yield (1.72) followed by accession 2 (1.38),accession 8 (1.36), accession 3 (1.29), and accession 4 (1.04)accordingly while accession 7 (0.75) had the least grain yieldacross the locations. Heritability (broad-sense) estimatesranged from (61.4393%) grain yield to (99.6028%) plantheight. Moderate to high phenotypic and genotypic coefficientsof variation and genetic advances as a percent of mean wererecorded for all the traits. Moderate to high estimates ofgenotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation, and geneticadvances as a percent of mean coupled with high heritability(broad-sense) for these traits is an indication that the traits aregoverned by additive genetic action. Hence, improvement ofthese traits can be made through selection. © 2021 Departmentof Agricultural Sciences, AIOU