Grain yield performance of spring maize under different agroecological zones

Abstract Maize is an important cereal crop which ranks second in production after rice in Nepal with an increasing demand for livestock and poultry ration but declining in production. This experiment was conducted to screen top- and stable yielding maize hybrids in various agroecological zones of Nepal during the spring season. In this study, nine maize genotypes were evaluated across six environments in randomized complete block design with three replications. The additive main effect and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) ANOVA revealed that environment, genotype, and their interaction had a substantial effect on the grain yield and all five principal components (PCs) were significantly different (P < 0.0001). AMMI stability value revealed that genotypes Rampur composite and Kanchan 101 were the most stable genotypes in all environments. The specific adaptation of genotype as explained by Which-won-where model suggest that Godavari in environment E2, Rajkumar in E4 and E5, and Bisco gold 941 in E1, E3 and E6 were the winning genotypes. Furthermore, the mean-versus-stability model revealed that genotype Kanchan 101 had above average yield with greater stability. In addition, biplot analysis revealed that 78.32% of variation is explained by PC1 and 11.41% by PC2 of the interaction effect. The genotype ranking based on revealed that genotype Kanchan 101 was close to the ideal line and Sano ghogha was at the greatest distance. Conclusively, AMMI and genotype and genotype by environment interaction (GGE) model explicates that genotype Kanchan 101 has both the high yield and stability across all agroecological zones. In future research on multi-year trial with emphasis other agronomic traits to assess the stability and priorities for the development of package of practices for maximizing the grain yield is recommended.