Varietal Screening of Winter Maize Genotypes in Terai Region of Nepal

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2019 in the subject Agrarian Studies, , course: B. Sc. Agriculture, language: English, abstract: This Bachelor Thesis focusses on elucidating out superior genotypes for varietal development of maize, analyzing the correlation study of grain yield with other parameters and estimating the direct and indirect effects of various parameters on grain yield.

Maize was domesticated around 7000 years ago in Central Mexico. Maize belongs to family Poaceae and tribe Maydae. Maize is grown in different ranges of environment condition. Thus, through introduction and breeding, it has gained adaptation all over the world. The spread of maize cultivation in the world was due to its diversity, high adaptability and versatility. The reasons for its popularity include high yields per unit area, husk protection against birds and rain, fairly easy to weed as well as possession of a good competition rate with weeds because of its rapid vertical growth. In Nepal, maize is the second most important cereal crop in terms of area and production.

Farmers and breeders want successful new maize hybrids that show high performance for yield and other essential agronomic traits. Their superiority should be reliable over a wide range of environmental conditions. The basic cause of difference between genotypes in their yield stability is the occurrence of genotype-environment interaction (GEI). Genotype - environment interaction may be expected to be high when environmental differences are high as in Ghana. Hence, it is important to assess the importance of interactions in the selection of genotypes across several environments besides calculating the average performance of the genotypes under evaluation.