Screening of Drought Resistance Identification Indexes for Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Cultivars in Ningxia

The morphological characters, physiological characters, yield traits and yield per plant of total 49 rice cultivars from Ningxia were investigated under conditions of water stress and non-water stress so as to determine the relationship between each trait and yield per plant under water stress and the relationship between each relative character and drought resistance coefficient under water stress and non-water stress. The correlation, grey correlation, stepwise regression and path analyses showed that the til er number per plant, plant height, grain density, effective panicle number per plant and grain number per pan-icle, total 5 traits, were significantly correlated with the drought resistance of rice, and they could be used to identify the drought resistance of rice in Ningxia. In addition, the drought resistance of rice was graded qualitatively according to the subordinate function value of corresponding drought resistance coefficient. The results showed that among the 49 rice cultivars from Ningxia, 6 rice cultivars were highly drought resistant, and 9 rice cultivars were moderately drought resistant, suggesting that the evalua-tion method was feasible and effective.