Presence of striking variability for maize has been reported from the north eastern region of India which is earmarked as one of the centre of diversity for this crop. Maize germplasm has been collected from the Himalayan region periodically and such collections continue to fetch some of the types which were primitive and resembled closely to the postulated ancestors of maize. Unconscious selections made by different ethnic groups has helped in preservation of maize diversity. In three exploration trips, 799 landraces were collected from Arunachal Pradesh (252), Assam (24), Manipur (47), Meghalaya (184), Mizoram (99), Nagaland (62), Sikkim (122) and others (9). A wide range of variability for plant, ear and kernel characters was C/bserved. Nature and extent of variability has been described.
Maize, germplasm, exploration/collection
