Review on Broadening Genetic Pool of Open Pollinated Maize (Zea mays L.) Varieties and Inbridline Development

Maize is the most important cereal crop grown and consumed worldwide. Open pollinated maize varieties are increasingly becoming more important and popular among resource-poor farmers due to their low cost. Maize breeding programme should continue in developing inbred lines from maize OPVs to achieve greater genetic improvement. However, recently the proportion of released open pollinated varieties (OPVs) versus hybrids for farmers is continuously decreasing as compared to the past 10 years. Therefore, it has become important to broaden the genetic pool of open pollinated maize varieties by introducing germplasm from abroad, characterizing phenotypically using agronomic per se and checking their stability across different environments. Keywords: OPVs, Phynotypic characterization, Heterotic grouping, Yield stability DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/9-17-01 Publication date:September 30th 201