Genetic Studies for Yield Components and Screening for Drought Tolerance at Seedling Stage of Maize (Zea mays L.) Genotypes

A field experiment involving 30 genotypes of maize was carried out under the field condition during Rabi 2021-2022 to study the association of yield contributing characters among themselves along with direct and indirect effects on grain yield per plant and identify the genotypes which are highly efficient with respect to different PEG induced drought stress. The results of the study revealed that plant height, leaf length, ear height, number of grain rows per cob, number of grains per row, cob girth, cob weight, biological yield per plant, 100 grains weight and harvest index showed positive significant association with grain yield per plant both at genotypic and phenotypic levels. Plant height showed positive significant association with leaf length, ear height, number of grain rows per cob, cob girth, cob weight, 100 grains weight, biological yield per plant and grain yield per plant. Days to fifty per cent silking, anthesis to silking interval, days to maturity, number of grain rows per cob exhibited negative direct effect while number of cobs per plant, leaf width, cob length, cob weight, biological yield per plant and harvest index exhibited positive direct effect on grain yield per plant. For improvement of seed yield, attention should be given for traits such as cob weight, biological yield per plant and harvest index which showed high positive correlation coefficients with a considerable direct and indirect effect on grain yield. MGC-192 has shown high root length, shoot length, seedling length, seedling dry weight, seedling vigour index 1, seedling vigour index II, germination percentage and MGW-392 has shown high relative water content under PEG induced stress condition, hence this genotype is suggested for future selection.