Identification of High-Yielding Landraces and Hybrids of Maize (Zea mays L.) and the Heritability of Yield-Related Traits in Ghana

A field research was undertaken at the research site of the Mampong campus of the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana to evaluate the parents and progenies of seven maize varieties. The main objective of the study was to identify high-yielding landraces and hybrids of maize and the heritability of yield-related traits using diallel analysis. The seven maize varieties (parents) used were: Aburopa, Aburonenkatie, Aburohoma, Kamaazie red, Kamaazie yellow, Kamaazie light red and Obaatampa. These varieties were crossed using the complete diallel design to generate 49 progenies. The progenies and their parents were evaluated using the Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. In general, Obaatampa and Kamaazie red performed best for the yield and traits. General Combining Abilities (GCA) and Specific Combining Abilities (SCA) were significant for yield and yield related traits suggesting the importance of both additive and non-additive genes in their inheritance. Maternal gene effect was found to control days to 50% silking, size of seeds, number of seeds per cob and number of husk. It is therefore important to include reciprocals of traits in study. Obaatampa, Aburopa and Aburonenkatie were the best general combiner for 100 seeds weight. High narrow sense heritability was observed for days to 50% tasseling, days to 50% silking, diameter of cob, length of cob, weight per cob, 100 seeds weight and size of seeds. The progeny Aburopa X Kamaazie light red recorded the highest SCA for 100 seeds weight followed by Kamaazie light red X Aburonenkatie.