Food and nutritional securities are the major threats coupled with declining factor productivity and climate change effects in Nepal. Maize being the principal food crops of the majority of the hill people and source of animal feed for ever growing livestock industries in Terai of Nepal. Despite the many efforts made to increase the maize productivity in the country, the results are not much encouraging. Many of the maize based technologies developed and recommended for the farmers to date are not fully adopted. Therefore, problem is either on technology development or on dissemination or on both. Considering the above facts, some of the innovative and modern approaches of plant breeding and crop management technologies to increase the maize yield need to be developed and disseminated. There is a need for location-specific maize production technologies, especially for lowland winter maize, marginal upland maize production system, and resource poor farmers. Research efforts can be targeted to address both yield potential and on-farm yields by reducing the impacts of abiotic and biotic constraints. Therefore, in order to streamline the future direction of maize research in Nepal, an attempt has been made in this article to highlight the present status and future prospects with few key pathways.

To identify superior quality protein maize genotypes for grain yield under different agro climatic conditions of terai and hill districts in Nepal, the coordinated varietal trials (CVT) were conducted at Dailekh, Doti, Salyan, Lumle and Pakhribas in 2013 and Salyan, Pakhribas and Kabre in 2014 during summer season and coordinated farmer's field trials (CFFT) at Surkhet and Dailekh in 2013 and Salyan, Pakhribas and Khumaltar in 2014 during summer season. The experiment was carried out using randomized complete block design with three replications for CVT and CFFT. Across the locations and years the superior genotypes found under CVT were S01SIYQ, S01SIWQ-2 and Poshilo Makai-1 where as S99TLYQ-HG-AB, S99TLYQ-B and Poshilo Makai-1 were found superior genotypes under CFFT. The superior genotypes derived from CFFT will be promoted further for similar environments across the country.

Hybrid is the most economical option to boost up the grain yield of maize, and slowly it is gaining popularity among the farmers of Nepal. In order to identify the potential hybrids suitable for Terai and Inner Terai regions, a set of experiment was conducted on hybrid maize developed by National Maize Research Program (NMRP), Rampur in Coordinated Variety Trials (CVTs) during the winter season of 2014/15 and 2015/16. The experiments were done by using Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD). Each treatment was replicated thrice for each site at Rampur, Belachapi, Tarahara, and Parwanipur. Over the years, genotypes RML-83/RL-197 and RML-4/RL-111 yielded higher than other tested genotypes in Tarahara. Similarly, RL-180/RL-105, RML-87/RL-105, Dekalb double and Rampur Hybrid-6 produced higher grain yield at Belachapi during 2014/15. Genotype RML-4/RML-111 followed by RML-98/RL-105, and Rampur Hybrid-6 yielded higher at Parwanipur during 2015/16. In the case of Rampur, genotypes RML-98/RML-105 had produced higher yield in both the years whereas RML-5/RL-105 during 2014/15, and Rampur Hybrid-2 followed by RML-55/RL-105 were the superior genotypes in terms of grain yield during 2015/16. Those hybrids with higher grain yield in CVTs will be upgraded to Coordinated Farmers Field Trial on Hybrid (CFFTH) and these hybrids might be the potential future hybrids for Terai and Inner Terai of Nepal.

To find out whether the different tillage methods at different planting densities affect the performance of maize hybrids, an experiment was carried out at National Maize Research Program, Rampur during spring season of 2013 and 2014. The experiment was laid out in strip plot design with three replications having 12 treatments. The vertical factor was tillage with conservation tillage (No Tillage + residue=NT) and conventional tillage (CT) and the horizontal factor were genotypes (Rampur Hybrid-2 and RML-32/RML-17) and in split planting geometries (75cm × 25cm =53333 plants/ha, 70cm × 25cm=57142 plant/ha and 60cm ×25cm= 66666 plants/ha). In both the years, the highest number of cobs (73,177 and 67638/ha) was recorded at planting density of 66666/ha. NT had the highest no of kernel rows/cob (14.01) as against 12.12 in CT in 2014. The highest number of kernels (27.3 and 29.29) per row was recorded in NT during 2013 and 2014 respectively. Similarly, in 2014, the highest number of kernels were found in RML-32/RMl-17 (29.17/row) and planting density of 53333/ha (28.46/row). In 2013, RML-32/RML-17 produced the highest test weight of 363.94g over the Rampur hybrid-2 with 362.17g. Significantly the highest grain yield of 9240.00 kg/ha in 2013 and 7459.80 kg/ha in 2014 at planting geometry of 65cm ×25cm were recorded. No effects was found by tillage methods for grain yields of maize in 2013, but was found in 2014 (7012.18 kg in NT compared to 6037.59 kg/ha in CT). NT and wider spaced crop matured earlier in both the years; however Rampur hybrid-2 matured earlier to RML-32/RML-17 in 2013. In 2014, harvest index of 47.85 % was recorded in planting geometry of 66666/ha, the highest benefit cost ratio of 1.36 was worked out in NT and 1.46 at the density of 66666/ha. The highest value of 2.46% of soil organic matter was recorded in NT as compared to 2.43% in CT.

The severity of the rice blast disease (Pyricularia grisea) of both leaf and neck varies with different environment and it becomes destructive under favorable condition. The leaf and neck blast resistance and susceptible interaction of 30 different tropical rice lines were evaluated under low-, mid-and up-land conditions of Chitwan district and classified on the basis of disease severity with respect to susceptible check, Masuli. Of them, 5, 10, 12 and 3 rice lines were resistant to leaf blast, moderately resistant, moderately susceptible susceptible, respectively. Similarly, for the neck blast nine lines were resistant, thirteen moderately resistant, seven moderately susceptible and one was susceptible. The progenies from Masuli/MT4 had the highest leaf and neck blast susceptible reaction, while the most of progenies from IPB (Irradiated Pusa Basmati), KalinghaIII_IR64, Radha 32_ KIII and Masuli_IR64 were resistant, and the most promising sources against leaf and neck blast resistance. Therefore, the progenies from these parents can be used in breeding the resistant variety.