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Multivariate statistical procedures were used to analyse data on the chemical composition and in vitro digestibility of four varienties of rice straw after treatment with 4% NaOH solution, 4% urea solution or distilled water (control) for 48 hours. For each treatment, stepwise discriminant analysis identified the variables which maximized differences between varieties and the eigenvectors from principal component analysis quantified the contribution of these criterion variables to varietal differences. The overall response of varieties to chemical treatment was demonstrated qualitatively, by cluster analysis, and quantitatively, from the magnitude of the principal component scores. The analysis revealed that the urea and control treatments elicited the same response whereas NaOH had the greatest effect on the poorest straw variety. Similar analyses conducted on the botanical fractions of the varieties showed that the relative response of the inflorescence, stem, leaf blade and leaf sheath fractions was not altered by chemical treatment.