Drought is the major constraint limiting rainfed rice production in the southern parts of India. Although rice is highly susceptible to drought, still there is a scope to improve this crop for drought tolerance due to the inherent capacity and inbuiltgenetic variability for wider adaptations in varied ecosystems. Genotypic variation for different traits contributing to drought tolerance in rice has been reported by Babu et al. (2001). Hence it is necessary to collect and evaluate the available landraces and improved cultivars for their genetic variability for drought tolerance traits and assess their stable performance over varied environments. In the present study, attempts were made to collect landraces and cultivars developed at different research stations in India and elsewhere and to assess the extent of genetic variability (Genetic Coefficient of Variation, GCV; Phenotypic Coefficient of Variation, PCV and Environmental Coefficient of Variation, ECV), heritability (h~2) for physio-morphological traits exhibited by them and their stability over diverse environments.
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