@article{720, author = "Vandi Alieu Sama and Alpha Bellah Jalloh and Sayo Sesay and Alieu Mohamed Bah", abstract = "Agro-morphological characterization of germplasm variety is fundamental in order to provide information for plant breeding programs. A clear understanding of genetic diversity is essential for the effective conservation and utilization of rice genetic resources. A study to characterize 30 lowland rice varieties was conducted in the Associated Mangrove Swamp during the 2016 wet cropping season. Results revealed significant genetic differences among the 30 rice varieties for the traits evaluated. The five principal components accounted for 96% of the total variation of which PC1 and PC2 contributed 63% and 15%, respectively. Cluster analysis grouped the 30 genotypes into seven main clusters with cluster II represented the bulk (26.6%) of the total genotypes while cluster VII contributed the least (3.3%) of genotypes. Hybridization between genotypes grouped in clusters IV and VI would not be effective as their genetic make-up is almost similar while crossing between genotypes in clusters III and V will be effective, as genotypes in these clusters were identified as being most divergent", issn = "23483997", journal = "IJRAS", keywords = "Diversity, Genetics, Characterization, Conservation and Utilization", month = "September", note = "This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/", number = "5", pages = "216-220", title = "{G}enetic {D}iversity of {L}owland {R}ice {V}arieties {E}valuated in the {A}ssociated {M}angrove {S}wamp of {S}ierra {L}eone", volume = "5", year = "2018", }