Description
Teosinte is highly admired by the Nepalese farmers as a summer forage crop. It is also an important crop for milking animals in the tropical world where dairy husbandry is practiced. The only Sirsa cultivar of teosinte currently grown in Nepal takes 8 to 9 months from sowing to seed harvesting, which makes growing this crop difficult for farmers with small land holdings wanting to establish winter crops. Therefore, a diversity study on eighteen teosinte accessions was conducted in CRBD design. Seventeen teosinte accessions imported from CYMMIT Mexico and one locally grown Sirsa were evaluated in order to identify if any of the introduced accessions could perform better than Sirsa in terms of herbage yield, seed yield and time to seed maturity . Out of 17 accessions, 5, 7 and 12 were significantly different from Sirsa with respect to herbage yield, seed yield and maturity. This preliminary result suggests a possible source of material for developing new teosinte varieties, better suited for farmer’s need, particularly to reduce the length of time required to grow a seed crop in Nepal.
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Evaluation of Different Genotypes of Teosinte (Euchlaena mexicana) For Herbage and Seed Production in Nepal
Teosinte is highly admired by the Nepalese farmers as a summer forage crop. It is also an important crop for milking animals in the tropical world where dairy husbandry is practiced. The only Sirsa cultivar of teosinte currently grown in Nepal takes 8 to 9 months from sowing to seed harvesting, which makes growing this crop difficult for farmers with small land holdings wanting to establish winter crops. Therefore, a diversity study on eighteen teosinte accessions was conducted in CRBD design. Seventeen teosinte accessions imported from CYMMIT Mexico and one locally grown Sirsa were evaluated in order to identify if any of the introduced accessions could perform better than Sirsa in terms of herbage yield, seed yield and time to seed maturity . Out of 17 accessions, 5, 7 and 12 were significantly different from Sirsa with respect to herbage yield, seed yield and maturity. This preliminary result suggests a possible source of material for developing new teosinte varieties, better suited for farmer’s need, particularly to reduce the length of time required to grow a seed crop in Nepal.
