Phenotypic Diversity and Correlation Coefficient Analysis of Open Pollinated Maize Varieties in Uganda (Published)
Maize (Zea mays L.) is among the most important cereal crops grown and consumed in East Africa. Improved open pollinated maize varieties prevail popular among resource-poor farmers due to their low cost of production. Despite the advantages of OPVs in Uganda current trends show that open pollinated varieties are being continuously replaced by hybrids, and maize production is constrained by foliar diseases and abiotic (drought) factors. Therefore, it has become important to broaden the genetic pool of OPVs by characterising them using agronomic and diseases related traits. In this study, nineteen OPVs and five checks were phenotypically characterised at the National Crop Resources Research Center in α-lattice design. The results showed highly significant (P < 0.001) variations among the local and introduced OPVs in most of agronomic traits, except plant aspect, grey leaf spot and stem borer. An OPV SUWAN showed the highest grain yield (10.22 t ha-1) performance. The least number of days to anthesis, silking and stem lodging was observed on OPV SITUKA MI. Regarding correlation coefficient analysis, the result showed that positive significant (P < 0.001) correlations were observed between days to anthesis and silking (r = 0.99). The highest negative and significant (P < 0.001) correlation was observed between percentage of fuzarium ear rot and number of kennels per row (r = -0.67).
Keywords: Grain Yield, OPV, agronomic and disease related traits, correlation coefficient
Assessment of Yield and Yield Components of Soya-Bean (Glycine Max (L.) Merril) Grown Under Conventional Agronomic Practices of Lesotho (Published)
An experiment on soya-bean cultivars was conducted in Lesotho at The National University of Lesotho, Roma, with the objectives of (i) establishing the differences among the soya-bean cultivars in terms of growth and yield parameters measured (ii) to estimate the regression coefficients for yield components (iii) determining correlation among traits that influence yield of soya-bean. Field plot experiment was laid-out in a completely randomized block design with 28 treatments and three replications. Data collected were 100 grain weight, plant height, number of pods per plant leaflets size and leaflet shape. Data were subjected to analysis of variance, multiple linear regression and person’s correlation of coefficient. Results of analysis of variance revealed highly significant difference (P<0.001) among soya-bean cultivars for plant height, weight per plot and weight of 100 grains, while no significant differences were observed among leaf shape, number of pots per plant and leaf size. Regression analysis showed a highly significant (P<0.01) regression, implying that plant height contributed immensely on the yield of soya-beans followed by leaflets shape. Correlations among most parameters were high and few parameters were moderately correlated.
Keywords: Glycine max, Lesotho, correlation coefficient, yield and yield components