6 Growth and Yield Performance of Maize Hybrids on the Vertic soils of Accra Plains Ghana

Abstract

Maize is the most important food staple in Ghana however yield potential of 6t/ha for this cereal has yet to be realized. Increasing yield productivity has become crucial in recent times due to food security pressures as a result a growing population and a rapidly expanding use in the local industry. Maize hybrids offer the opportunity to significantly increase yields in the country and this has led to an increasingly greater number of hybrids being developed and released. There is therefore the need to test maize hybrids before recommending them to farmers under specific agroecological areas. In this study, a recently released hybrid ‘Legon Aburo’ (released by West African Centre for Crop Improvement - WACCI), tested alongside two commonly used hybrids ‘Opeaburo’ (local hybrid) and ‘Pan 53’ (imported hybrid) and two Open Pollinated Varieties (OPVs) (‘Obatanpa’ and ‘Abontem’), in the coastal savannah agro- cological zone with distinctive vertic black heavy clayey soils. The results show significant differences (p < 0.05) in the leaf area index (LAI) among the maize varieties and was highest in ‘Obantanpa’ in both seasons. Biomass which varied significantly among varieties was highest in ‘Legon Aburo’ and ‘Pan 53’ and lowest in ‘Abontem’. In terms of yields the most popular OPV ‘Obatanpa’ was comparable to the local hybrid ‘Opeaburo’ and the foreign hybrid ‘PAN 53’. The OPV ‘Abontem’ had the lowest grain yield whiles the WACCI hybrid ‘Legon Aburo’ produced the highest grain (<7t/ha) for both years. This novel hybrid variety may offer an opportunity for farmers in the Coastal Savannah with predominantly vertic clayey soils to increase their yields.