India is land of agriculture from ancient times. Currently India is largest cattle holders in the world, but in output lack behind European countries. According to IGFRI vision 2050, India faces fodder scarcity of 35% in green fodder, 10.95% in dry fodder and 44% in concentrate which results in reduction of livestock output (meat milk and other bi products). Maize have excellent capacity to adopt environments, high nutritional value and higher growth rate can make it game changer. Current experiment conducted in the SKUAST-K, ten fodder maize lines were crossed in a half diallel fashion during. In the Kharif season 2020 at CSKHPKV Hill Agriculture Research Centre Bajaura and the forty-five crosses were produced. The crosses were evaluated at three locations of Jammu and Kashmir during Kharif 2021. Observations were recorded on 1. Fodder Yield traits – Plant Height, Green fodder yield. 2. Fodder Quality traits- Crude Protein content %, Acid dietary fibres%, Neutral detergent fibres %. In results found. KDFM 179 and KDFM 180 revealed the highest GCA while KDFM 177 and KDFM 184 revealed Lowest GCA. Cross combination viz., KDFM 176 × KDFM 178, and KDFM 183 × KDFM 187 reveled Heighest SCA for yield triats. While parent KDFM 181 (GCA) and cross combination- KDFM 181 × KDFM 183 (SCA) performed best in both yield and quality traits.

Fodder maize, combing ability, gca, sca

The performance of KDFM 181 in the GCA analysis for yield traits demonstrated its superior performance as the most effective general combiner for yield traits. The cross combination of KDFM 181 and KDFM 183 has demonstrated superior performance in terms of yield attributes.

Kumar Akshay, Khuroo N.S., Dar Z.A., Shikari A.B. and Bhat M.A. (2023). Combing Ability of Yield and quality Contributing Attributes in Fodder Maize (Zea maize L.). Biological Forum – An International Journal, 15(8): 352-356.