Growth and Yield Traits Variation of African Maize (Zea mays L.) Accessions in the Humid Tropical Rainforest of South-Eastern Nigeria

Ekemini Edet Obok, Idorenyin Asuquo Udo, Macauley Asim Ittah, Mary Njei Abua, Godfrey Akpan Iwo, Ojubi Usang Enang and Justina John Ulafor

Background and Objective: There is limited research on the evaluation of genetic diversity in maize accessions in the humid tropical rainforest zone of Nigeria. There could be beneficial genes and traits of interest in the exiting IPGRI maize germplasm. The main objective of the present study was to assess the growth and yield traits performance of IPGRI maize accessions and estimate the variance components of these traits in the humid tropic agroecological zone of South-eastern Nigeria. Materials and Methods: The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications and 11 treatments. Ikom white maize variety was used as the “check’. Analysis of variance for mean data on growth and yield traits were conducted at 95% confidence limit and post-ANOVA mean separation was conducted using Duncan’s New Multiple Range Test. Results: The genetic variability estimates of these maize genotypes revealed low Phenotypic Coefficient of Variability (PCV) with corresponding low Genotypic Coefficient of Variability (GCV) for some of the agronomic traits. Moderate (50.11%) to high (99.98%) broad sense heritability (H_b) range was observed for all the traits, except number of leaves per plant, stem width, leaf area, leaf area index and anthesis-silking interval. Seedling emergence, plant height, number of cobs per plant, cob length, cob width, 1000-grain weight and grain yield recorded high (>25%) to very high (>95%) genetic advance estimate at 5% selection intensity. TZm-299 (4.521 t ha^–1) and TZm-378 (3.766 t ha^–1) produced the highest grain yields and were apparently superior to other accessions in their growth and yield potentials. Conclusion: The establishment, growth and yield of IPGRI maize accessions with African origins were not hindered in Calabar. Four of the IPGRI maize accessions, TZm-299, TZm-109, TZm-1553 and TZm-378, in various growth and yield traits, outperformed Ikom white.

View Fulltext Back