Vol. 12, Issue 5 (2023)

Author(s):
Sabina N, Aieman YT, M Irfan Rather, MA Wani, Zahida Rashid, Sabiya B, Shabeena M, AMI Qureshi, W Tanveer and Dar ZA

Abstract:
Ten maize hybrids along with two checks were evaluated across three locations spread over different agro-climatic zones of Jammu and Kashmir that differ in soil type, altitude and mean annual rainfall during Kharif 2020. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Stability parameters such as mean (X), regression coefficient (bi) and deviation from regression (S²di) were evaluated in order to assess the stability of these hybrids for various characters under consideration. Analysis of variance revealed that the hybrids possessed highly significant variability for all the traits viz., No. of kernel rows cob^-1, No. of kernels row^-1, number of cobs plant^-1, Shelling percentage and grain yield plant^-1. Interaction of genotypes with the environment (GxE) linear was observed to be significant for all the traits, which revealed linear response of the genotypes to environmental changes. Thus, the genotypes differed considerably for stability of the traits under investigation over the locations. The hybrids H05, H23 and H32 were identified as most stable, H-11 and DHM-117 and PMH-10 were adapted to poor environments respectively in terms of grain yield stability. Highest mean performance for grain yield (q/ha) was observed to be in H05 (97.43 q/ha) in contrast to the checks DHM-117(92.73 q/ha) and PMH-10 (93.27 q/ha).