Wakil Ahmad Sarhadi, Shamsruhaman Shams, Ghulam Mohammad Bahram & Mohammad Bahman Sadeghi
The demand for aromatic rice is increasing in Afghanistan and the surrounding countries. Aromatic rice due to its good taste, aroma and soft texture after cooking is favorable to consumers. In the present study, some important morphological and agronomic characters such as panicles number per plant, grains number per panicle, 1,000-grain weight, grain length and grain width, for eleven native Afghan rice cultivars and three foreign cultivars as check, were analyzed. In this research, the grains number per panicle was ranged between 69 ± 10.8 (mean ± standard deviation) in Luke Qasan and 175 ± 59.4 in Izayoi (check). Also 1,000-grain weight was ranged between 20 ± 0.7 in Torishi and 32 ± 3.5 in Pashadi Konar. Aroma was also estimated by tasting individual grains, cooking test, 1.7% KOH sensory test, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-selected ion monitoring (GC-MS-SIM) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis. Mean comparison by Duncan’s method in 5% confidence level was used. Finally cluster analysis for assessment of aroma were performed by Ward’s method and cultivars divided to three clusters included : 1) Lawangi and Sarda Bala 2) Torishi, Sela Takhar and Sela Doshi 3) Surkha-Bala, Germa Bala, Surkhamabain, Surkha-Daraz-Baghlan, Pashadi Konar, Koshihekari (Check), Izayoi (Check), Fajer (Check) and Luke Qasan. This study showed that Afghan native rice cultivars such as Surkha-Bala, Surkhamabain, Sela Takhar, Sela Doshi and Pashadi Konar with the desirable agronomic characters such as thin and slender grains, and favorable aroma can be used for further improvement of aromatic rice in breeding.