Identifying the superior traits for selecting the ideotype of rice cultivars

All the plant breeders tend to develop the concept of a plant in order to enhance the yield by selection of the individual traits to encompass the breeding model plants or ideotypes. Therefore, researchers must identify the factors limiting the performance and control the factors making the yield gap so as to determine the ideotype. Hence, this study was conducted to identify the superior traits for selecting the ideotype of local rice cultivars. The experiment was carried out with a randomized complete blocks design consisting of four replications, and 15 required local rice cultivars were collected for using the regression model, path coefficient analysis, and Mahalanobis distance analysis. The results revealed that nine variables were entered into the production equation and justified 65% of the yield variation, respectively. Increase in the yield due to the difference in yields in the maximal and average states of days to 50% of flowering was equal to 232 kg ha −1 accounting for 9% of the total yield increase. The field’s actual yield and potential yield using the model were equal to 4868 and 7545 kg ha −1 , and the calculated yield gap was equal to 2677 kg ha −1 . All the local cultivars were close to each other in terms of the genetic distance, showing that this ideotype yield gap can be compensated. According to the findings, the high level of PY changes and contribution of each factor influencing it shows a significant part of this change can be compensated leading to the potential yield through the proper management.