Estimates of phenotypic correlations between the productivity components of upland rice

Abstract

This research aimed to study the phenotypic correlations, in highland rice, between the characters described as components of production (number of spikelets per panicles, percentage of filled spikelets, and number of panicles per m2) and productivity in kg/ha. The experiments were carried out in the 2014/2015 crop at two sites: in the municipality of Lavras/MG and at Lambari/MG. They were conducted in a complete block design with three replications. We evaluated 34 strains of the Preliminary Comparative Test, belonging to the Breeding Program of Highland Rice of the Embrapa Rice and Beans. Joint analysis of variance of the sites was carried out for each character. The measured variables were subjected to Pearson phenotypic correlation. The significance of the correlation coefficients was evaluated by Student’s t-test. It was concluded in this work that the correlation between productivity (kg/ha) × percentage of filled spikelets was significant and positive, showing that sterility in highland rice is a factor that strongly affects the productivity of the crop. From frequency distribution by histograms, it is known that the percentage of filled spikelets and productivity are controlled by a large number of genes, being considered quantitative characters by the normal distribution of the data.