Pandey, R.L.Sarawagi, A.K.Sahu, G.R.Shrivastava, G.K.Saxena, Ravi R.Namdeo, Ku. Nisha2016-12-242016-12-242008173 p.http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/92609The experiment was conducted at Instructional cum Research Farm, Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, College of Agriculture, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India, during Kharif 2007 to assess the variation for different morphological, seed yield and nutritional traits in 200 coloured pericarped germplasm of rice including 5 varieties namely Poornima, Danteshwari, Samleshwari, Chandrahasini and Mahamaya. Morphological characterization revealed that more than 98 per cent germplasm was having the anthocyanin pigmentation on any plant part under observation. Similarly, majority of the genotypes had semi-erect plant habit and erect leaves. More than 51 per cent genotypes are having slender grain type while, others were having medium grains. The analysis of variance for metric traits indicated that the mean sum of squares due to blocks were non significant for all the traits except grain length. The mean sum of squares due to checks were significant for panicle length, leaf length, days to 50% flowering, hundred seed weight, grain length, grain breadth, length:breadth ratio of grain and total number of grains per panicle. The high magnitude of coefficient of variation was noted for number of unfilled spikelets, number of filled spikelets, number of total grains per panicle and seed yield per plant showing existence of wider variability for these traits, which could be exploited in future breeding programme. The simple correlation and path analysis carried out for thirteen yield attributing characters indicated that plant height, panicle length, leaf length, days to 50% flowering, number of filled grains per panicle, total grains per panicle and effective tillers per plant showed high positive and significant correlation with seed yield per plant. High direct positive contribution on seed yield was shown by number of effective tillers per plant, days to 50% flowering, number of filled grains per panicle, length:breadth ratio of grain, hundred seed weight and total grains per panicle. Nutritional analysis revealed that there is no effect of pigmentation on the concentration of iron and zinc. However, there are genotypic differences for these micronutrients. The highest concentration of iron was found in genotype Lankeshwari. Similarly, zinc concentration was highest in white pericarped rice variety Poornima. The genotypes having higher concentration of iron (Lankeshwari) and zinc (Poornima) can be used in nutritional rice breeding programme.enThesis