Agronomic performance of drought-tolerant maize hybrids in diverse environments of lowland tropics

Abstract

ABSTRACTAssessment of maize (Zea mays L.) hybrids for adaptation to diverse environments is crucial for sustainability of maize production and productivity in sub-Saharan Africa. A total of 110 hybrids derived from 10 elite drought-tolerant maize inbreds and 11 checks were evaluated at three locations for 2 years in Nigeria to identify high-yielding and stable hybrids using different stability approaches. Mean squares were significant for genotypes (G), environments (E) and genotype x environment interaction (GEI) for grain yield and most other traits. The test environments contributed 83.7% to the total variation in grain yield, whereas G accounted for 5.0% and GEI 11.3%. The repeatability of traits ranged from 0.22 to 0.66. Grain yield of hybrids ranged from 2.1 t ha−1 for TZEI 17 × TZEI 16 to 4.1 t ha−1 for TZEI 129 × TZEI 16, with mean yield of 3.1 t ha−1. The results of additive main effect and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) analysis and rank summation index were found to be consistent, as both methods identified TZEI 129 × TZEI 16 and (TZEI 17 × TZEI 16) × TZEI 157 as high-yielding and consistent-performing across test environments. The outstanding hybrids should be further tested on-farm to facilitate the registration and commercialization in Nigeria.