Browsing by Author "Manigben, Kulai Amadu"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Evaluation of three-way hybrid maize ((Zea mays l.) For grain yield and associated traits in the savannas of northern Ghana.
    (NOVEMBER, 2016) Manigben, Kulai Amadu
    The promotion of three-way hybrid maize production in cereal dominated cropping systems are still being developed because of their wide adaptation and cheap seed prices relative to single cross hybrid. Cultivar release and recommendation require identifying high yielding and widely adapted genotypes for a diverse range of environments. This study was designed to evaluate the performances of three-way cross maize hybrids for grain yield and other important traits across five diverse environments in the savannas of Ghana. The results showed that environments (E) and genotypes (G) and interaction (G × E) effects were highly significant (P < 0.001) for grain yield and other important traits, with low repeatability or broad sense heritability (0.40) for grain yield across the test environments. However, Damongo (0.97) and Nyankpala (0.69) had high repeatability for grain yield. The strong phenotypic correlation between grain yield and most important traits demonstrated that selection for those traits can simultaneously be improved with grain yield. A strong genetic correlation between Manga and Wa revealed the similarity between the test environments. This implied one of the environment can be dropped to improve breeding efficiency by reducing the cost involved in multi-location testing. The interaction between genotypes and environments were crossover type of interaction revealing an inconsistent performance of hybrid genotypes across the test environments. The hybrid 14 (M1227-12) was found to be the highest yielding, with yield advantage of 10% over the commercial check SC719. The genotype and genotype-by-environment biplots analysis identified hybrids 14 (M1227-12), 23 (M1227-5) and 25 (M1124-6) as the most stable and high yielding with above grand mean grain yield. Similarly, hybrids 21 (AS1204-46), 24 (M1428-7), 27 (M1227-2) and 34 (M1428-14) were identified as high yielding above grand mean and moderately stable. These promising three-way maize hybrids would benefit farmers and seed producers when promoted for adoption and has the potential to increase household incomes of smallholder farmers in the Savannas of Ghana.