674-681Farmers of some localities of Cuttack district of Odisha, India still cultivate the traditional rice varieties even after five decades of introduction of semi-dwarf high yielding varieties in late 1960s and their rapid adoption and spread in the entire farming system. In present study, a total of 29 prominent rice landraces along with 2 released rice varieties were collected from 5 blocks of Cuttack district. The traditional rice growing farmers perceive with great conviction that these landraces are more tolerant to biotic and abiotic stresses than any of the improved high yielding varieties and can give an assured yield even at the worst weather conditions. Therefore, it becomes imperative to conserve these natural resources for posterity. The DNA markers based diversity analysis was also carried out using 16 STMS markers. The mean number of alleles per locus was 3.13 showing 88.89 % polymorphism and an average polymorphism information content of 3.33. Cluster analysis based on microsatellite allelic diversity clearly demarcated all the 31 genotypes into two different groups which could be very much useful in rice improvement programs
