STABILITY OF MODIFIED DOUBLE CROSS MAIZE HYBRIDS FOR YIELD PARAMETERS ACROSS FOUR ENVIRONMENTS

A study to investigate the stability in yield and other morphological parameters associated with modified double cross maize hybrids compared with their respective standard parental hybrids across three locations of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that is, Agricultural University Peshawar (AUP), Agricultural Research Station (ARS), Baffa, (Mansehra) and Cereal Crops Research Institute (CCRI), Pirsabak (Nowshera), was conducted during 2008-2009. Production of modified double cross hybrids of maize having improved yield was carried out during spring crop season of 2008 at Malakandher Research farm of KP Agricultural University Peshawar. Genotype x environment interaction was studied for yield and yield parameters in five modified double cross maize hybrids and their respective parental maize hybrids. Genotype main effect was highly significant for all the parameters except anthesis-silking interval (ASI), while significant genotype x environment effect was observed for all parameters. The genotype x environment (linear) interaction component showed high significance for all the characters studied except ear diameter and 300- kernel weight. This indicated significant differences among the genotypes for linear response to environments. Based on stability parameters and over all mean, the performance of modified hybrid P-3025 excelled other parental hybrids as well as modified hybrids. Selection of modified hybrid P- 3025 for ear length, fresh weight plot-1 and grain yield could enhance the grain yield in the target environments.