| Summary: | A study was carried out in 73 rice landraces along with two varieties to study the genetic variability and association of the traits related to early seedling vigour. Morphological traits such as seedling height, leaf sheath length and leaf blade length were measured in seedlings on 15 and 25 days after sowing. Analysis of variance indicated the presence of genetic variability for seedling vigour related traits in rice landraces. High GCV, PCV and high heritability coupled with high genetic advance as per cent of mean were observed indicating selection may be effective for improvement of these traits. Estimates of genotypic correlation were higher than that of phenotypic correlation indicating strong genetic association among the traits studied. Landraces viz., Senkar, Palkachaka, Murugankar, Kaatuponni, Kochin Samba, Poongar, Thillainayagam and Kuliyadichan exhibited significantly higher seedling height on both 15 and 25 DAS. These landraces may harbour favourable alleles for early seedling vigour. Hence, they can be utilized for improving early seedling vigour after validating its stable expression across varied environments.
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