Of the total landraces tested under hill and terai,environments, twenty-seven landraces were selected on the basis of their yield potential and other agronomic characters. These landraces were further evaluated in RCB Design at Dailekh (1,300 masl) in summer 2000 and at Rampur (228 masl) in winter 2001. Four recommended composite varieties were used as standard checks. Significant differences were observed in tasseling, silking, plant and ear height, maturity , number of kernels per row and grain yield. pyuthan-1 produced the highest grain yield (7,799 k&'ha) followed by pyuthan-3 (7,491 kg/ha), Darchula-18 (7,335 k&'ha) and pyuthan-12 (7,317 kg/ ha), respectively. Eleven other landraces also produced yield at par with the checks. Earlier tasseling and silking were recorded in terai than in hill. Increased plant and ear height were exhibited by most of the landraces in the hill environment. Eighty-nine percent of the landraces were medium in days to maturity (91-120 days). Darchula-22, Darchula-12, Pyuthan-3 and Darchula-23 showed higher number of kernels per row. Fifteen outstanding landraces have been selected and used for developing a white population suitable for the mid and far western hills of Nepal as these landraces have high yield potential with high degree of adaptability and are suitable to that socio- economic environment.

English

0211|AGRIS 0201|AL-Maize Program|R01PROCE

Juan Carlos Mendieta

CIMMYT Publications Collection