<div>Background: Rice is one of the major staple crops of human population. Worldwide escalating human populace exerts pressure to increase rice production. To fulfill the demand, the injudicious application of chemical fertilizers is posing grave threat to the environment together with the entire living population. A suitable replacement of these harmful fertilizers is needed in modern agriculture to keep the biodiversity undisturbed. The main objective of the study is to screen and explore indigenous plant growth promoting fungi which can replace the conventional fertilizers. 
 
Methods: Rhizospheric soil of different rice cultivating fields were collected in the year 2018. Different in vitro assays of the fungal isolates obtained from the soil were performed to check their plant growth promotion capabilities. 
 
Result: 20 different indigenous fungal isolates were studied to evaluate their ability as PGPF for organic cultivation of Tulaipanji, an endemic aromatic rice variety cultivated in Uttar Dinajpur, West Bengal, India. Trichoderma harzianum TaK12 and Trichoderma aureoviride TaN16 were found to enhance maximum shoot and root length of rice plant. These two isolates also showed efficacy in phosphate solubilization. Trichoderma aureoviride TaN16 together with Penicillium citrinum PcK10 and Aspergillus niger AnK1 produced high amount of IAA. The results obtained from the study clearly indicate that these plant growth promoting fungi (PGPF) possess the ability to boost up plant growth.&nbsp;</div>

Screening of Plant Growth Promoting Fungi (PGPF) for Sustainable Cultivation of Tulaipanji, an Endemic Aromatic Rice Variety of Uttar Dinajpur, West Bengal, India

Background: A breeder&rsquo;s success in rice breeding depends on identifying and using genetic diversity at genotypic level. This involves evaluating different traits to select parent genotypes with high genetic variability. The purpose of this study is to analyze genetic diversity and assess yield and yield attributes in the collected diverse rice germplasm. 
 
Methods: The study aimed to assess genetic diversity and perform multivariate analysis of 16 grain yield and yield attributes among 50 rice genotypes. The experiment was conducted using Randomized Block Design with three replications at P.G. Research Farm, Ranadevi, MSSSoA, CUTM, Paralakhemundi, Odisha, during Kharif season of 2022-23. 
 
Result: Cluster analysis categorized genotypes into six distinct clusters with Cluster I containing the most genotypes (40), followed by Cluster II (4) and Cluster V (3), while the rest had one genotype each. Cluster V exhibited the highest intra-cluster distance followed by Clusters II and I. The most significant inter-cluster distance was observed between Clusters V and II and then between Clusters VI and V, indicating substantial genetic divergence among these clusters. Grain yield plant-1 contributed the most to total genetic divergence followed by biological yield plant-1, 1000 grain weight and plant height. Five of 11 PCs analyzed had eigenvalues exceeding 1.0, accounting for 84.72% of the total cumulative variation. Based on per se performance, genotypes such as NLR 28523, NLR 9674, Khandagiri, Tulaipanji and Barsha emerged as genetically diverse, offering promise for breeding programs.

Screening of Plant Growth Promoting Fungi (PGPF) for Sustainable Cultivation of Tulaipanji, an Endemic Aromatic Rice Variety of Uttar Dinajpur, West Bengal, India

Genetic Divergence in Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Germplasms based on Agro-morphological Traits using Multivariate Analysis