Indian Journal of Animal Nutrition

The knowledge of genetic variation and its potential use in a breeding programme is important to exploit genetic variability among species and varieties within species. In present experiment, Two hundred S₁ inbred lines of maize (Zea mays L.) raised in ear-to-row progenies and these were used to study the genetic variability in different traits of maize under drought and irrigated conditions along with their parents (nine) and few checks (sixteen) during post rainy season 2012. The experiment was laid out in lattice square design (15x15) with two replications. The analysis of variance indicated highly significant differences for 18 characters except relative water content at 60 days and relative water content at 90 days under drought, whereas under irrigated condition the analysis of variance indicated highly significant differences for 17 characters and 1 character showed significant difference except chlorophyll content content at 90 days and relative water content at 90 days. Results revealed that under drought condition high heritability couple with high genetic advance as per cent of mean was observed for bulk cob weight, grain yield per plot, number of cobs, anthesis to silking interval and number of kernels per row, whereas under irrigated condition higher genetic advance as per cent of mean and high heritability were recorded for bulk cob weight, grain yield per plot, cob length, number of kernels per row, number of cobs, 100-seed weight and plant height. Thus, these traits could be used as selection criteria for yield in maize.