Abstract
<title>Abstract</title> <p>In the present study, 214 rice germplasm accessions were evaluated along with four check varieties using an augmented randomized complete block design to study the genetic variability, correlation, path analysis and genetic diversity studies for yield and yield attributing traits. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the germplasm for different traits. The high genotypic coefficients of variation, and phenotypic coefficients of variation were observed for biological yield (46.86%, 46.92%), harvest index (36.44%, 36.47%), High broad-sense heritability across all studied traits, high estimates of genetic advance in percent of the mean were observed for many traits except days to maturity and days to 50% flowering. biological yield, harvest index, number of spikelets per panicle, exhibit significant positive correlation with grain yield. Principal component analysis revealed that the first five principal components with eigenvalues >1 explained 64.34% of the total variation. Cluster analysis grouped the genotypes into five distinct clusters, with the maximum inter-cluster distance observed between Cluster I and Cluster V (6.00), indicating the highest genetic divergence between these clusters. Overall, the substantial genetic variability and divergence observed among the rice germplasm accessions provide ample of scope for the selection and hybridization of genetically diverse parents to develop high-yielding rice varieties.</p>