VARIABILITY AND CHARACTER ASSOCIATION STUDIES IN FODDER MAIZE (ZEA MAYS L.) HYBRIDS
RAHUL KAPOOR*
Department of Plant Breeding & Genetics
Punjab Agricultural University,
Ludhiana-141 004 (Punjab), India
*(e-mail : rahulkapoor@pau.edu)
(Received : 31 March 2017; Accepted : 3 May 2017)
SUMMARY
Twenty maize (Zea mays L.) hybrids were evaluated for character association study during kharif 2012 at Forage Research Farm, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. The genotypes were significantly different for all the characters, which indicated scope for further genetic studies. High heritability along with high genetic advance was recorded for all the traits except number of leaves per plant indicating the predominance of additive effects in the inheritance of these characters. The phenotypic coefficients of variation (PCV) estimates were invariably higher than their corresponding genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) values thereby suggesting the environmental influence. High estimates of GCV and PCV were observed for plant height, leaf stem ratio, dry matter yield and green fodder yield, suggesting that selection based on these characters would facilitate successful isolation of desirable types. Traits like plant height, leaf length and dry matter yield had positive and significant correlation at genotypic as well as phenotypic level with green fodder yield and the selection based on these traits will result in improving the green fodder yield in maize. Most of the yield contributing traits like plant height, leaf length, stems girth, leaf : stem ratio and dry matter yield exhibited positive direct effect on green fodder yield.
Key words: Green fodder yield, fodder maize hybrids, heritability, correlation and path coefficient