Evaluation Of Maize (Zea Mays L.) Varieties For Moisture Stress Areas Of Wolaita
Gobeze Loha1, Rahel Tigabu2, Abdishikur Reshid1, Abebe Endlae2, Mesfin Kassa2*
1 Wolaita Sodo University, Department of Plant Sciences, Sodo, Ethiopia.
2 Medawolabu University, Department of Plant Sciences, Goba, Ethiopia.
*Corresponding Author
Mesfin Kassa,
Medawolabu University, Department of Plant Sciences, Goba, Ethiopia.
E-mail: mesfine2004@gmail.com
Received: April 16, 2021; Accepted: August 05, 2021; Published: September 08, 2021
Citation: Gobeze Loha, Rahel Tigabu, Abdishikur Reshid, Abebe Endlae, Mesfin Kassa. Evaluation Of Maize (Zea Mays L) Varieties For Moisture Stress Areas Of Wolaita. Int J Plant Sci Agric. 2021;4(4):156-161.
Copyright: Mesfin Kassa©2021. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Maize is priority crop to farmers because it is a stable food in many rural communities of southern region. It is widely grown in the various parts of southern region from lowland to mid-highlands. On other hand, moisture stress is one the most critical production constraints of maize in low to intermediate agro-ecology. Thus, developing maize varieties tolerant to moisture is of paramount important in order to sustain maize production in moisture areas. In this content, field experiments were conducted during 201617 cropping at Kindo Koyisha and Humbo with objective to select adaptable maize varieties for moisture stress with reasonable grain yield. Treatments used in this study were eight maize varieties (BH546, BH547, Gibe II, MH130, Melkasa IV, MH140, Melkasa II and Melkasa 6Q) and three local cultivars (Local red, Local mixed and Local white) of total of eleven maize genotypes were evaluated at two moisture prone areas in southern Ethiopia. Treatments were laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Maize varieties exhibited difference performance at two tested locations. Varieties had relatively superiority of performance Kindo Koyisha as compared to Humbo. At Humbo varieties MH140, MH130 BH546 and Melkasa IV gave relatively higher grain yield. At Kindo Koyisha maize varieties expressed relatively better performance with respect to grain yield. At this location varieties with superior performance with sounding grain yield were BH546, MH140, BH547 and MH130. Based on this result BH546, MH140 and MH130 could be used at both locations. Moreover, BH547 at Bale and Melkasa IV at Humbo also could used to respective locations for production.
2.Introduction
3.Materials and Methods
4.Results and Discussion
5.Conclusion
6.References
Keywords
Maize Varieties; Moisture Stress; Yields.
Introduction
Maize (Zea mays L.) has become the third most important cereal
crop in the world, because of its high adaptability and productivity
[5]. Globally maize is cultivated under diverse climatic conditions
but yields best under moderate temperatures with sufficient water.
However, on the African continent, it is the most important food
crop and mainstay of rural diets in the eastern and southern regions
[3, 4, 7]. Maize has a higher carbohydrate production potential
per unit land than other cereals and was the first major cereal
to undergo rapid and widespread technological transformation in
its cultivation [6]. In developed countries, maize is grown mainly
for animal feed and as raw materials for industrial products, such
as starch, glucose, and dextrose and bio fuel. Therefore, maize occupies
an important position in Africa and on the global economy
where it is traded as a food, feed and industrial grain crop [9].
In Ethiopia, cereals account for about 82.34% of the annual national
crop production. Maize ranks first in total production and
yield per unit area and second in area coverage among all the cereals.
It is largely produced in western, central, southern and eastern
regions [2]. Maize research has advanced from landraces to varieties,
to maize hybrids: double cross, three-way cross and single
cross, and recently transgenic maize hybrids. The optimized use
of adapted and exotic germplasm in various production environments
is a key to the continued success in increasing grain yield
and other trait-specific products: green ear, forage, oil, protein,
starch. Moreover, maize is priority crop to farmers because it is a
stable food in many rural communities of southern region. It is
widely grown in the various parts of southern region from lowland
to mid-highlands. On other hand, moisture stress is one the
most critical production constraints of maize in low to intermediate
agro-ecology. However, the extent of yield reduction due to
moisture stress varies with genotypes. Developing maize varieties tolerant to moisture is of paramount important in order to sustain
maize production in moisture areas. Hence, the objective of this
study was to select adaptable maize varieties for moisture stress
with reasonable grain yield.
Material and Methods
Experimental Site
Field experiments were conducted during 2016/17 cropping
at Kindo Koyisha (Altitude 1170 masl, annual rainfall 924 mm,
2100, major crops cultivated in the study area include maize, sorghum
and sweet potato) and Humbo (Altitude 1800, annual rainfall
1295 with bimodal rainfall patterns, average temperature of
200c).
Treatments and Experimental Design
Treatments used in this study were eight maize varieties (BH546,
BH547, Gibe II, MH130, Melkasa IV, MH140, Melkasa II and
Melkasa 6Q) and three local cultivars (Local red, Local mixed and
Local white) of total of eleven maize genotypes were evaluated
at two moisture prone areas in southern Ethiopia. Treatments
were laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD)
with three replications. The plot size was 4 x 4 m with 1.5 m between
replications and 1.0 m between plots. Planting was carried
out as per planting time of respective area following the onset of
rainfall. Maize was hand planted by placing two seeds per hill and
thinned after emergence to maintain the proposed plant density
per plot. Weed control was carried out by hand or hand hoeing,
while diseases and insect damage were visually monitored during
crop growing season. Phosphorus fertilizer in the form of DAP
and N in the form urea were applied as per recommendation for
maize production. Moreover, other crop management practices
carried out as desired.
Data Collection and Measurements
Data recorded on yield components included ear length, ear diameter,
number of seeds per row, kernels per ear, thousand seed
weight and prolificacy (ears per plant). Ear length and diameter
were measured for five randomly selected plants from the base
to the tip and at approximately the middle of the ear at harvesting,
respectively. Number of seeds per row was counted for five
randomly selected plants. Seed number per ear was determined
multiplying the number of rows by the number of seeds per row
[1]. Thousand seed weight (TSW) was measured by counting a
thousand seeds with a seed counter and weighing it with sensitive
balance. Prolificacy is the property of producing more ears per
plant and estimated by dividing the number of ears by number of
plants per plot. Grain was manually harvested from net plot and
converted to kg/ha after adjusting the moisture content to 12.5%.
Biomass yield was estimated as the sum of stover weighed and
grain yield. Harvest index (HI) is the ratio of grain yield to the
total biomass yield which was estimated by dividing grain yield by
total biomass. Data were subjected to analysis of variance using
the general linear model SAS version 9.1 [8]. Treatments means
were compared using the least significant difference (LSD) at 5%
probability level.
Results
Plant and Ear Heights
The data for plant and ear heights as affected by location and
varieties are depicted in Table 1. Analysis o variance indicated that
location had significant effect on plant and ear height. Both parameters
were higher at Kindo Koyisha as compared to Humbo.
Similarly, maize varieties were significantly differed for plant height
and ear height. The tallest plant height (235 cm) was recorded for
variety BH547 followed by variety BH547 with mean plant height
of 229 cm. The shortest plant height (156 cm) was seen for variety
Melkasa 6Q. In line with this, the tallest ear heights (117 cm)
was observed for BH547 followed by variety Local mixed with
mean ear height of 58 cm. On the other hand, location by variety
interactions resulted in significant differences on ear heights (Table
1). Generally, all varieties exhibited taller ear heights at Kindo
Koyisha as compared to Humbo. The tallest ear height (148 cm)
was observed for variety Local white at Humbo followed by variety
BH547 at Kindo Koyisha with mean ear height of 147 cm.
The shortest ear height (34 cm) was seen for variety Melkasa 6Q
at Humbo. In contrast, location by varieties interaction did not
have significant effect plant heights.
Ear Length and Ear Diameter
The data for ear length and ear diameter as affected by location
and varieties are presented in Table 2. Analysis of variance
showed that main effect of location and varieties had significant
differences on length. The ear length of maize varieties was higher
at Kindo Koyisha than that of Humbo. Regarding varieties, averaged
over locations, the longest cob length (15.13 cm) was obtained
from variety BH546 followed by variety BH547 with mean
ear length of 13.74 cm. The shortest ear diameter (11.62 cm) was
seen for variety Melkasa 6Q. In line with this, interaction of location
by varieties resulted in significant differences on ear length
(Table 2). The longest ear length (15.83 cm) was recorded for
variety BH546 at Kindo Koyisha followed by variety BH547 with
mean cob length of 14.45 cm at the same location. The shortest
ear length (9.69 cm) was seen for local white at Humbo. On
the other hand, only main effect of varieties exhibited significant
differences on ear length. The longest cob diameter (4.75 cm)
was measured for variety BH546 followed by variety BH547 with
mean ear diameter of 4.34 cm. the shortest ear diameter (4.03 cm)
was observed for local white. However, main effect of location
and its interactions with varieties did not have significant effect
on ear diameter.
Rows per ear, seeds per row, seeds per ear and thousand
seed weight
Number of rows per ear seeds per row, seeds per ear and TSW as
affected by location and varieties are shown in Table 3. Analysis
of variance indicated that the main effect of location had significant
effect on number of seeds per row and seeds per ear. Both
parameters were higher at Kindo Koyisha as compared to that of
Humbo. Similarly, varieties exhibited significant differences number
of rows per ear, seeds per row, seeds per ear and TSW (Table
[3]. Variety BH547 produced the highest number of per ear (15.1)
followed by variety Melkasa 6Q with mean number of rows per
ear of 14.8. The least number of rows per cob (12.4) was seen for
Local white. In line with this, the greatest number of seeds per
row (34) and seeds per cob (469) were recorded for variety BH546 followed by variety BH547 with mean number of seeds per row
and seeds per ear of 30 and 445, respectively. Local white yielded
the lowest number of seeds per row (26) and seeds per ear (295).
Moreover, location by variety interactions resulted in significant
on number of seeds per row. The greatest number of seeds per
row (36) was recorded that Kindo Koyisha for variety BH546 followed
by the same location for variety BH547 with mean number
of seeds per row of 34. The lowest number of seeds per row (22)
was seen for Local white. In contrast, main effect of location, variety
and their interactions did not have significant effect on TSW,
seeds per row and rows per ear (Table 3).
Biomass, Grain Yield and Harvest Index
The data for biomass, grain yield and HI as affected by location
and variety are depicted in Table 4. Location did not have significant
effect on biomass yield of maize varieties. However, varieties
exhibited significant differences on biomass yield. Biomass yield
for maize varieties ranged from 7083 to 14792 kg/ha with the
highest biomass yield recorded (14792 kg/ha) for variety BH546
followed by variety BH547 with biomass yield of 14688 kg/ha.
The lowest biomass yield (7083 kg/ha) was obtained from variety
Melkasa 6Q. In line with this, location by varieties interactions
resulted in significant differences on biomass yield. The greatest
biomass yield (17188 kg/ha) was recorded at Kindo Koyisha for
variety BH547 followed by variety BH546 at the same location
with mean biomass yield of 15938 kg/ha. The lowest biomass
yield (6979 kg/ha) was seen for variety Melkasa 6Q at Kindo
Koyisha.
Grain yield was significantly differed in response to location where
higher grain yield was obtained from Kindo Koyisha as compared
to Humbo (Table 3). Similarly, maize varieties exhibited significant
differences on grain yield. The highest grain yield (5208 kg/
ha) was recorded at Kindo Koyisha for variety BH546 followed
by MH140 with mean grain yield of 5000 kg/ha at the same location.
The lowest grain yield (2396 kg/ha) was achieved from
Local red at Humbo. In general maize varieties tested for moisture
responded differently to respective environments. At Kindo
Koyisha varieties BH546, MH140 and BH547 showed reasonable
performance in a such moisture stress prone environment. On
other hand, MH140 and MH130 relatively exhibited superiority
over others at Humbo.
Table 1. Selected Physical and Chemical Properties of the Experimental Site soil before planting during 2019 Cropping Season at Bakadawula District.
Table 2. Phenological data of common bean as affected by interaction effect of blended NPSB and K fertilizer application rates during 2019 cropping season at Bakadawula District.
Table 3. Growth parameter of common bean as affected by interaction effect of blended NPSB and K fertilizer application rates during 2019 cropping season at Bakadawula District.
Table 4. Yield and yield components of common bean as affected by interaction effect of blended NPSB and K fertilizer application rates during 2019 cropping season at Bakadawula District.
Table 5. Agronomic efficiency of common bean as affected by interaction effect of blended NPSB and K fertilizer application rates during 2019 cropping season at Bakadawula District.
Discussion
Maize varieties exhibited differently for agronomic traits measured
in response to location with respect of their genetic variability
(Table 1, 2, 3 and 4). Generally almost all maize varieties
showed superior performance at Kindo Koyisha as compared to
Humbo for agronomic traits. The grain yield differences recorded
was 730 kg/ha between Kindo Koyisha and Humbo. Thus, relatively
the performances of varieties were poor at Humbo which
probably suggests that Kindo Koyisha was relatively better environment
with plant growth conditions. Moreover, this illustrated
that subjecting plants to favorable growing conditions increased
the ability of varieties for capturing resources which was reflected
as evident in their increased agronomic performance. The significant
effects of environments indicated that the genotypes performed
differently across locations. Thus, the mean yield of genotypes differed from location to location. Similarly, maize varieties,
averaged over locations, showed significant differences on plant
height, ear height, rows per cob, seeds per row, seeds per cob, ear
length and ear diameter (Table 1, 2 and 3). Relatively higher plant
height (= 200 cm) was recorded for varieties BH546, BH547 and
MH140 whereas ear heights (= 100 cm) were recorded for varieties
BH547, Local mixed and Local white. Variety BH546 gave
the longest cob length while BH547 produced the highest cob diameter.
Variety BH547 gave the highest number of rows per cob
while variety BH547 produced the greatest number of seeds per
row and seeds per cob. Maize varieties, averaged over locations,
tended to express a wide range of their genetic variability for
grain yield. Grain yield variations ranged from 2396 to 4063 kg/
ha. Variety BH 546 out yielded which was followed by MH140.
Local red was least with respect to grain yield performance. The
significant difference among the genotypes showed variations in
their response (yield potential) to different locations.
Location by variety interactions resulted in significant differences
on ear height, cob length, seeds per row, biomass and grain yield
(Table 1, 2 & 3). For aforementioned parameters, varieties had
relatively superiority at Kindo Koyisha as compared to Humbo.
In general the performance of varieties was poor at Humbo with
the grain yield variability ranged from 2396 to 3021 kg/ha. At
Humbo varieties MH140, MH130, BH546 and Melkasa IV gave
relatively higher grain yield with HI (Physiological efficiency and
ability of converting total dry matter into economic yield) values
were 0.30, 0.40, 0.28 and 0.36, respectively. This variability
might be attributed to varietal differences in maize genotypes
in response to the prevailing environmental conditions. Hence,
Humbo location could be considered as a stressful environment
with profound limitation in potential performance of maize varieties.
At Kindo Koyisha maize varieties expressed relatively better
performance with respect to grain yield. Grain yield variability
ranged from 2604 to 5208 kg/ha from lowest to the highest. At
this location varieties with superior performance with sounding
grain yield were BH546, MH140, BH547 and MH130. This probably
indicates that genotypes describe the complete set of genes
inherited by an individual that is important for the expression of
a trait under consideration in a particular environment. In general
maize varieties at Kindo Koyisha performed best to their potential
as compared to Humbo. Maize varieties BH546, MH130 and
MH140 showed relatively stability across location with superiority
of grain yield. Abay and Bjornstad (2009) indicated that genotype
by environment (G x E) interactions is a differential genotypic
expression across environments which affect the genotypes
rankings within each environment and hence relevant for identifying
mega environments and targeting genotypes. Moreover,
the significant of G X E indicates the presence of fluctuation
of genotypes performance across environments or testing sites
with inconsistency performance. Similar results were recorded by
Akcura et al. (2005), Acura and Kaya (2008) Asfaw (2008) Dagne
(2008) Solomon et al. (2008) Abdurhaman (2009) and Muluken
(2009). The relationship between selected agronomic traits with
grain is depicted in Table 5. The correlation coefficient (r) values
of selected agronomic traits with grain yield ranged from -0.05 to
0.82. Plant and ear height were positively significantly (P = 0.05)
correlated which might suggest that the traits are closely associated
with grain yield. Similarly, number seeds per row, seeds per
cob, ear length, ear diameter, biomass and TSW had positively significantly associated with yield. In contrast, number of rows
per cob with grain yield correlation was not significant. In general
the correlation of almost all agronomic traits with grain yield was
relatively strong indicating that their contribution towards grain
yield was considerable.
Conclusion
Maize varieties reacted differently for agronomic traits measured
in response to location with respect of their genetic variability.
Generally almost all maize varieties exhibited superior performance
at Kindo Koyisha than that of Humbo. Based on this
result, varieties BH546, MH140 and MH130 could be used at
both locations. Moreover, varieties BH546 and MH 140 at Kindo
Koyisha whereas varieties MH 140, MH 130 and Melkasa IV at
Humbo showed relatively better adaptation to their respective locations.
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