Varietal improvement in maize: development of single cross hybrids in India

J. Kaul, R. Sai kumar and Sain Dass

Maize (Zea mays L.) is the most widely distributed crop of the world being grown in tropical, sub-tropical and temperate regions up to 500 and from sea level to more than 3000m under irrigated to semi-arid conditions. Being a versatile crop, it adapts easily to a wide range of production environments. In India, maize is the third most important cereal after rice and wheat that provides food, feed, fodder, and serves as a source of basic raw material for the number of industrial products,viz. starch, protein ,oil, alcoholic beverages, food sweeteners, cosmetics, bio-fuel, etc. No other cereal can be used in as many ways as maize. Virtually every part of the plant has an economic worth. The grain can be consumed as human food, fermented to produce a wide range of foods and beverages, fed to livestock, and used as an industrial input in the production of starch, oil, sugar, protein, cellulose, ethyl alcohol, etc. The leaves, stalks, and tassels can be fed to livestock, either green (in the form of fodder or silage) or dried (in the form of Stover).The roots can be used for mulching, incorporated into the soil to improve the physical structure, or dried and burned as fuel. In India, maize is cultivated over 8.26 million ha with a production of 19.31 million tons having an average productivity of more than 2.4 tons/ ha, contributing 8.5 % to the Indian food basket. It occupies an important place as a source of human food (25%), animal feed (11%), and poultry feed (52%), starch (11%), brewery (1%) and seed 1% (Fig.1). The growth rate of area (2.83 %), production (30.93 %) and productivity (27.35%) over the past years, has shown a remarkable increase as compared to other principal cereal crops. No other cereal crop has shown the high growth rate as of maize.

Maize breeding activities in India

Maize breeding strategy in India has gone through many phases of switch -over since the inception of All India Coordinated Research Project (Fig.2) on maize in 1957. However, the last three to five years have been the landmark years since the adoption of high yielding hybrids on farmers' fields proved as critical input for achieving high growth rate in maize. The breeding activities have therefore, been re-oriented towards the development of high yielding single cross hybrids for different agro-ecological regions of the country seeing the strength of two-parent crosses for high yield and tackling the problems posed by biotic and abiotic stresses. This has been duly supported by development of vigorous, productive and genetically diverse inbred lines that have good performance per se as well as in cross combinations.

Focus on Inbred-hybrid technology

The major mandate of AICRP (Maize) as well as DMR is to evolve and disseminate inbred-hybrid technology. With the urbanisation, specialty corn has gained a great acceptability among the masses. Their demand in Indian market has gone up. Sweet corn and baby corn hybrids/ varieties are sought to cater to the demands of peri-urban agriculture. Over the years 131 hybrids have been developed and released since 1961; four dozen are public-bred single cross hybrids of different maturity( extra-early, early, medium and late) and suitable for cultivation in different agro-climatic conditions of the country (zones 1to 5, kindly see the Fig .2). Since 2005, as many as 23 normal, seven Quality protein maize (QPM) and one each of baby corn and sweet corn single cross hybrids have been released. The detailed information on these hybrids including pedigree, characteristic features, area of adaptation, etc, has been provided in Table 1.


Fig.1: maize utilization pattern in India


Fig.2 : AICRP on maize: centres and zones

Table 1: Hybrids Developed and Released for Cultivation in India during last three years.

S.No	Name	Pedigree	Centre	Year of release	Area of adoption	Characteristic features
NORMAL MAIZE
1	DHM-117	BML 6 X BML 7	ANGRAU, Hyderabad	2010	Andhra Pradesh	Medium,orange-yellow, flint, Nutrient responsive, tolerance to lodging & stay green,avg.yield 75q/ha
2	DHM-111	BML 6 X BML 15	ANGRAU, Hyderabad	2010	Andhra Pradesh	Medium maturity,Yellow,semi-dent, Nutrient responsive, tolerance to lodging & stay green,avg. yield 65 q/ha
3	DHM-113	BML 2 X BML 7	ANGRAU, Hyderabad	2010	Andhra Pradesh	Late,orange, semi-dent, Nutrient responsive & tolerance to lodging, avg.yield 66 q/ha
4	HM 11	HK1-1128 X HK-163	CCS HAU, Karnal	2009	Across the country except Himalayan belt (rabi)	Late maturity, orange, flint, Responsive to higher doses of fertilizers, avg. yield 55 q/ha
5	HM10	HKI 193-2 X HKI 1128	CCS HAU Karnal	2008	Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and, Karnataka,	Medium maturity, yellow, semi flint, highly responsive to inputs, resistance MLB & avg yield 72 q/ha
6	PMH3	LM 17 X LM 14	PAU Ludhiana	2008	Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh	Late maturity, orange, flint, highly resposive to inputs & avg yield 75 q/ha
7	Nithya Shree	SKV-50 X NAI-105	UAS Naganahalli	2008	Karnataka (Kharif & rabi)	Late maturity,yellow-orange, semi-dent, resistant to lodging & avg yield 80 q/ha
8	Vivek hybrid 33	V 372 X CM 212	VPKAS Almora	2008	Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand	Early maturity, yellow, dent,avg. yield 50q/ha
9	Vivek 23	V 351 X V 341	VPKAS Almora	2007	Hills of Uttaranchal	Early maturity, yellow, flint, bold, moderate tolerance against TLB, tall & avg yield 45 q/ha.
10	Maize PAU 352	LM 15 X CML 32	PAU Ludhiana	2007	Punjab, Haryana, Delhi.	Early maturity, resistance to MLB, BSDM, ESR & avg yield 35-48 q/ha
11	HM 8	HKI 1105 X HKI 161	CCS HAU Karnal	2007	Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu,, Maharastra, Karnataka	Medium maturity, orange, flint & avg yield 50-68 q/ha
12	HM 9	HKI 1105 X HKI1128	CCS HAUKarnal	2007	Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa	Medium maturity, orange, flint & avg yield 60 q/ha
13	Malviya Makka 2	HUZM 185 X HKI1105	BHU Varanasi	2007	East UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, West Bengal, Orissa	Medium maturity , yellow, semi flint, responsive to higher doses of fertilizers, resistance to MLB & avg yield 54 q/ha
14	COHM 5	UMI 285 X UMI 61	TNAU oimbatore	2007	TN under irrigated & rainfed ecology	Late maturity, semi flint, responsive to high inputs, resistance to downy mildew, moderately resistance to stem borer, avg yield 42-55q/ha
15	PMH-1	LM 13 X LM 14	PAU Ludhiana	2007	Irrigated areas of Punjab	Late maturity, stem is zig-zag, resistance MLB, stalk rots, avg yield 52q/ha
16	Vivek 21	CM 212 X V 341	VPKAS Almora	2007	Uttaranchal, HP, J & K and NEH regions, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana & western UP, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu,, Maharastra & Karnataka	Extra early maturity, yellow, semi flint, bold, , tolerance against TLB & avg yield 45-50 q/ha
17	Vivek 25	V 341 X V 346	VPKAS Almora	2007	Uttarakhand, HP, J&K and NEH region	Extra-early maturity, yellow, semi dent, bold, tolerance against TLB & avg yield 50-55 q/ha
18	Vivek 27	V 335 X V 345	VPKAS Almora	2007	Eastern UP & Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Chattisgarh, & WB & Maharashtra, AP, Karnataka, & TN	Extra early maturity, yellow, semi-dent & avg yield 50-55 q/ha
19	PMH-2	LM 15 X LM 16	PAU Ludhiana	2006	Delhi, Haryana, Central & Western UP	Early maturity, short duration, resistance to MLB, BSDM, & PFSR
20	Buland	LM 11 X LM 12	PAU Ludhiana	2005	Punjab, UP, Haryana, Delhi, Tarai regions of Uttranchal.	Late maturity, resistance to TLB, Common rust, avg yield 85q/ha
21	HM 5	HKI 1344 X HKI 1348-6-2	CCS HAU Karnal	2005	Haryana	Medium maturity, white, dent responsive to high doses of fertilizers, medium tall, tolerance to frost & avg yield 68-72q/ha
22	Vivek Hybrid Maize 15	CM 152 X CM 212	VPKAS Almora	2005	J & K (Himalayan region), Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharastra & Karnataka	Extra early maturity with moderate degree of tolerance against TLB & avg yield 45-50 q/ha
23	Vivek Hybrid Maize 17	CM 153 X CM 212	VPKAS Almora	2005	Across the country, except hill states.	Extra early maturity with moderate degree of tolerance against TLB, MLB, avg yield 40-50 q/ha
QPM
1	HQPM4	HKI-193-2 X HKI 161	CCS HAU Karnal	2010	Across the country except Himalayan belt (rabi)	Late , yellow, semi-dent, avg. yield 60 q/ha
2	HQPM -7	HK1-193-1 X HKI-161	CCS HAU Karnal	2008	Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka , Maharashtra	Late maturity, Yellow, semi-flint, Resistance to MLB, avg. yield 72q/ha
3	Vivek QPM - 9	VQL1 X VQL2	VPKAS Almora	2008	Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka , Maharashtra	Extra early maturity, yellow, dent, performed better at low N2 & avg. yield 52q/ha
4	HQPM 5	HKI 163 X HKI 161	CCS HAU Karnal	2007	Across the country	Late maturity, orange, flint, responsive to higher doses of fertilizers, resistance to MLB & chilo partellus & avg yield > 58 q/ha
5	Shaktiman 3	CML 161 X CML 163	RAU Dholi	2006	Bihar	Late maturity, orange-yellow, semi flint, tall, QPM hybrid with 0.73% tryptophan in protein, fair tolerance against MLB, LSM
6	Shaktiman 4	CML 161 X CML 169	RAU Dholi	2006	Bihar	Semi flint, QPM hybrid 0.930 tryptophan in protein, , resistance against MLB.
7	HQPM 1	HKI 193-1 X HKI 163	CCS HAU Karnal	2005	Across the country	Late maturity, yellow, dent, responsive to higher doses of fertilizers, tolerance to frost/ cold, resistance to MLB and common rust & average yield 62 q/ha
Baby corn
1	HM 4	HKI 1105 X HKI 323	CCS HAU Karnal	2005	Haryana, Delhi, Punjab, & Eastern UP	Baby corn, medium maturity, orange, flint, medium tall, , tolerance to frost & cold & avg. yield 60-68 q/ha
SWEET CORN
1	HSC1	HKI1831 X HKISC1	CCS HAU Karnal	2010	J&K, Uttarakhand	Medium, light yellow, Brix value >23 %, Avg. green ear yield 120 q/ha

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Authors:
J. Kaul, R. Sai kumar and Sain Dass
Directorate of Maize research, Pusa Campus, New Delhi 110 012
Email: kauljyoti1@yahoo.co.in

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