నైరూప్య

Introgression of dwarfing gene: Key to sustainable yield jump in Maize

Kamendra N Mihra

A sustainable increase in yield of Maize can be obtained by increasing plant population per hectare. Wheat and Rice have witnessed sustainable yield increase in past. The increase in yield is attributed to optimum use of fertilizer, insecticide, introgression of Photo and thermo insensitivity and dwarfing gene. Maize exhibits complex issue as more than 40 monogeneic dwarfing mutants have been reported, however majority of these lead to reduction in yield to a great extent. We used population improvement breeding technique for the introgression of dwarfing gene which leads to reduced internode, plant height, ear height, number of leaves and leaf angle without yield sacrifice. This also contributed to improve biomass index (Vegetative: Reproductive Biomass ratio) of the plant.