The present investigation was carried out to assess the genetic diversity present among 66 rice landraces along with 4 checks for 14 different quantitative traits. All the genotypes were grouped into 5 clusters by performing Tocher's clustering method using Mahalanobis D2 distance. Cluster I was the largest, comprising of 34 genotypes, followed by Cluster II with 28 genotypes. The maximum genetic distance (D2) was observed between cluster V an III (6243.98), followed by clusters II and III

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... .44), clusters IV and II (6022.47), clusters I and IV (4544.26) and clusters IV and III (4161.67). The results revealed the highest contribution of plant height (25.50%) towards total diversity, followed by days to 50% flowering kernel (3.18%), grain yield per plant (2.42 %) and days to maturity (2.06). The rice genotypes belonging to the clusters III , IV and V were found to be the most divergent, and hence can be utilised in the recombination breeding programmes to exploit maximum heterosis.