Performance Evaluation and Identification of Highland Quality Protein Maize Hybrids in Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Maize plays an indispensable role in meeting high food demand. It is globally one of the most widely adopted and cultivated crops. Hybrid development from fixed inbred lines is one of the strategies for the improvement of maize production. The national average maize yield is low in East Africa; thus, the selection of promising germplasm has a great role to meet the high food demand of growing the population. Forty-two Quality Protein Maize (QPM) crosses (21 inbred lines each crossed with two testers) along with three popular standard hybrids checks were evaluated in two replications using alpha lattice during the 2017 cropping season at Ambo, Arsi-Negele, and Kulumsa. The objective of this study was to evaluate and select the best new QPM hybrids for grain yield, and other agronomic and morphological characteristics.
 Results: Significant difference among crosses was observed for 19 traits at Ambo, 14 traits at Arsi-Negele, and 19 traits at Kulumsa. Out of 28 traits studied, six of them did not show genotype by location interaction but they showed a significant genotypic effect. These traits were: Days to Silking (DS), Number of Ears per plant (EPP), Ear Length (EL), Kernels Per Row (KPR), Ear Diameter (ED), and Thousand Seed Weight (TSW). Based on the mean performance in the combined analysis, from 42 new QPM crosse, six of them (L8xT2, L7xT1, L8xT1, L19xT1, L6xT2, and L18xT1) were scored higher grain yield compared with the mean of the three standard checks and best conventional maize (CM) check (AMH853). L8xT2, L7xT1, L8xT1 crosses showed a higher grain yield advantage over the best check (AMH853) by 20.87, 14.13, and 13.63%, respectively.
 Conclusion: The study implicated the existence of a difference between the newly developed hybrids and the standard check varieties. In general, the study enabled us to identify promising crosses that could be forwarded for further use in maize breeding programs in future work.

Stability Analysis of Quality Protein Maize Hybrids Qualitative and Quantitative Traits under Heat Stress across Different Environments of Prayagraj District in Central India

“…The trend in area and production from 2012 to 2016 is depicted here. Rabi maize has been sown in around 19.31 lakh hectares (47.72 lakh acres) in India as of February 4, 2022, which is greater than the 17.51 lakh hectares (43.27 lakh acres) covered during the same period previous year. Major maize growing states are Bihar 5.96 lakh ha (14.73 lakh acres), Maharashtra 3.37 lakh ha (8.33 lakh acres), Telangana 1.92 lakh ha (4.74 lakh acres) and Tamil Nadu 1.91 lakh ha (4.72 lakh acres).…”

“…The estimation of combining abilities comprises several processes, including parental selection for crossing, crossing using a specific mating design, evaluation, and data interpretation [16][17][18]. The effects of combining ability, both general and specific combining ability, are essential markers of potential value for appraising inbred lines in hybrid combinations as a step toward developing hybrid varieties in maize [19]. If the SCA/GCA ratio is greater than one, it is a good sign of the preponderance of non-additive effects in the expression of quantitative characters [20].…”