Limited information has been reported on the genetic association of morphological and quality traits of Oryza sativa L. From a total of 50 genotypes, evaluated for genetic diversity using SSR markers, six diverse genotypes were selected for the generation of three crosses. Progenies of these crosses were grown to develop three F2 populations. Morphological and quality traits were recorded and analysed for genotypic and phenotypic correlations followed by the path coefficient analysis from the genotypic correlation. Strongest association was observed for yield per plant and alkali spread value (ranging from - 0.73 to -0.91 for different crosses). It was depicted from path coefficient analysis that length width ratio had a maximum direct effect on yield (ranging from 0.61 to 0.67 for different crosses), and also had a relatively high magnitude of the indirect effect to the yield via plant height, panicle length protein content and length width ratio. Although, minute differences were detected in the strength of association and direct/indirect effects for different populations, the direction of the association always remained the same. The present study showed that direct and indirect effects of traits should be considered for the selection of yield improvement instead of correlation, as a trait having high correlation may have a low direct effect and vice versa.
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