EVALUATION OF RELEASED MAIZE HYBRIDS TO HASTEN COMMERCIALIZATION IN COASTAL LOWLAND OF KENYA

Abstract

The coastal region of Kenya is a food deficit area with households purchasing a third of their food requirements. Although maize is the most important food crop, the region produces 1.56 million bags, while the demand is 3.80 million bags. This could partly be attributed to frequent droughts, inadequate number of improved hybrids adaptable to the region and also to poor crop management practices including planting patterns. Several high yielding hybrids have been released for the region over the last few years but they have not been commercialized which would make them accessible to farmers in the region. A study was conducted in 2014 and 2015 to evaluate the performance of released hybrids under two maize planting patterns (one and two seeds per hill) in a split plot design with planting pattern as the main plot and maize hybrids as the sub-plot. Five maize hybrids (CKH08069, PH4, WE1101, WE2109 and WE2111) were evaluated under the two planting patterns. The results indicated that hybrids WE1101 and CKH08069 had significantly higher (P<0.05) grain yield than the other hybrids including the local check (PH4). Hybrid CKH08069 had significantly higher ear height than all the other hybrids including the local check. The same trend was observed for ear length with the exception of the local check. The planting pattern had no significant influence, except for grain yield where the pattern of one plant per hill had significantly higher grain yield than that of two plants per hill. Since WE1101 has already been commercialized, hybrid CKH08069 should be commercialized and farmers should be encouraged to plant one seed per hill.