Abstract:
Maize is the most important food staple in Ghana; however, the yield potential of 6t/ha for this cereal has yet to
be realized. Increasing yield productivity has become crucial in recent times due to food security pressures
as a result of a growing population and a rapidly expanding use in the local industry. Maize hybrids offer the
opportunity to significantly increase yields in the country and this has led to an increasingly greater number of
hybrids being developed and released. There is therefore a need to test maize hybrids before recommending
them to farmers in specific agroecological areas. In this study, a recently released hybrid, ‘Legon Aburo’
(released by West African Centre for Crop Improvement, WACCI), tested alongside two commonly used
hybrids ‘Opeaburo’ (local hybrid) and ‘Pan 53’ (imported hybrid) and two open-pollinated Pollinated Varieties (OPVs)
(‘Obatanpa’ and ‘Abontem’), in the coastal savannah agro-ecological zone with distinctive vertices and heavy
clayey soils.
The results show significant differences (p < 0.05) in the leaf area index (LAI) among the maize varieties and
was highest in ‘Obantanpa’ in both seasons. Biomass, which varied significantly among varieties, was highest
in ‘Legon Aburo’ and ‘Pan 53’ and lowest in ‘Abontem’. In terms of yields, the most popular OPV is ‘Obatanpa’
was comparable to the local hybrid ‘Opeaburo’ and the foreign hybrid ‘PAN 53’. The OPV ‘Abontem’ had
the lowest grain yield, while the WACCI hybrid ‘Legon Aburo’ produced the highest grain (<7t/ha) for
both years. This novel hybrid variety may offer an opportunity for farmers in the Coastal Savannah with
predominantly vertice clayey soils to increase their yields.
