Evaluation of Turkish Maize Landraces Through Observing Their Yield and Agro-Morphological Traits for Genetic Improvement of New Maize Cultivars

For protection of diverse genetic resources of local landraces and to get the benefit for next generation, research works should be continuing through screening of local landraces by using with local germplasm; which will be very useful to conserve the genetic variability and will provide to economic profits to the farmers by improving their uses. In the context, One hundred twenty-five maize landraces with two commercial maize hybrids (‘Kalumet’ and ‘Katone’) were evaluated for yield and agro-morphological performance for genetic improvement of future maize varieties. The landraces were collected from the Black Sea Region of Turkey and were evaluated under the augmented complete design under Diyarbakir agro-ecological conditions during 2015. After observation, it was observed that all genotypes showed a significant variations for all traits especially for yield and yield attributes. Considering the overall performance of all landraces, the days to tasseling and silking were varied from 39.5 to 64.5 and from 49.5 to 70.5 days; while the SPAD meter were varied from 37.8 to 70 unit, the plant height from 165 to 315.5 cm, the ear height from 55.8 to 190 cm, the stalk thickness from 11.3-26 mm, the ear length from 6.21 to 25.38, the ear diameter 14.13 to 48.92 mm, the rows ear-1 from 2.33 to16.3, seed srow-1, the ear weight from 10.2 to 285.26g, the rachis diameter from 11.58 to 39.51mmand the grain yield from 63.68 to 1498.13 kg ha-1. Where, the range of landraces for all traits were varied huge and exceeded commercial check genotypes. Therefore, it was determined that the genotypic distinction of the landraces may be used as pre-breeding material for developing the suitable maize varieties for sustainable maize production in diverse agro-ecological conditions of Mediterranean region including Turkey.