Vol. 12, Issue 5 (2023)

Author(s):
Mohd Naser, Shahid Ahamad, Showkat Ahmad Sheikh, Avinash Pilla and Priya Tandon

Abstract:
Maize (corn) is one of the most widely grown cereal crops globally and one of important cereal crop after wheat and paddy in India. The mid hill region of Jammu viz., Rajouri and Poonch are agro- climatically intermediate to temperate region where maize is grown as sole crop or intercropped with common bean in Jammu and Kashmir. Among various biotic & abiotic stresses, fungal diseases of maize cause significant economic damage by reducing maize yields and by increasing input costs for disease management. The most sustainable control of maize diseases is through the release and planting of maize cultivars with durable disease resistance. Screening of the 128 maize germplasm under natural field conditions, 9 are highly resistant, 19 are resistant, 37 are moderately resistant, 50 are moderately susceptible and 13 are highly susceptible. The following germplasm viz., IIMRNH-2015-1, IIMRNH-2015-3, IMH-1525, IMH-1527, Ganga-7, Rajendra hybrid makka-2, Vijay, BGMH-1 and BGMH-2 are reported to be highly resistant. The maize rust resistant source comes in a variety of levels of resistance. Incorporating these resources into a resistance breeding programme could aid in the production of high-yielding rust resistant maize cultivars.