Vol.6 (2016) No. 4 ISSN: 2088-5334 Agronomic Characters, Yield Components and Grain Yield Evaluation of 11 New Hybrid Maize Prospective Genotypes Budi Setyawan # , Irfan Suliansyah # , Aswaldi Anwar # and Etti Swasti # # Faculty of Agriculture, Andalas University, Padang 25163, West Sumatera, Indonesia E-mail: budicnm@gmail.com Abstract— Maize (Zea mays L.) is the second important commodity after rice in Indonesia. As of 2015, more than 3 million tons of maize grain still need to be imported. It is caused by productivity of maize which remains low due to the lowness proportion of hybrid maize seed. In addition to a single cross, threeway cross seed is still necessary as alternatives for farmers rather than open pollinated cultivar ones. The purpose of this study was to evaluate grain yield of 11 prospective genotypes utilizing BISI 18 and Sukmaraga as control cultivars. Randomized block design (RBD) with three replications was adopted. The study was carried out in the dry season 2015. The result of this study showed that at 95% confidence level (α=0.05), prospective genotype SSUSX48274 performed significantly better than BISI 18 and Sukmaraga, while others yielded significantly better than Sukmaraga, but equal to BISI 18. All new prospective genotypes could be included in the multilocation trial in order to release superior varieties. Keywords— Productivity; seed; sukmaraga; Zea mays L I. INTRODUCTION Maize (Zea mays L.) is the second major commodity after rice in Indonesia. Maize is included in the strategic commodities in agricultural and economic development of Indonesia, due to utilization diversity of this commodity, both for food and feed. In some provinces, maize is consumed as a supplement to the staple food [1]. Diversified applications of maize and its derivatives, have been caused the demand for maize increased over years. In 2014, Indonesia imported 3.25 million metric tons of maize[2], increased to 3.27 million tons in 2015 [3]. In the first quarter of 2016, imports of maize has reached 739 thousands metric tons [4]. Low maize productivity is considered as the main cause of Indonesia's national maize supply shortage. Maize productivity of Indonesia is only 50.7% (Statistic Indonesia, 2015), even 30.6% [5] if compared to the productivity of US maize, which reached 9.76 metric tons per hectare. From 2010 to 2015 the increase of the national maize productivity is only 8.22%. This is equal to 1.64% per year [3]. A sluggish improvement considering Indonesia as agriculture- base country. Base on the above mentioned facts, the productivity of maize in Indonesia must be increased. The Government of Indonesia represented by the Ministry of Agriculture has been establishing some efforts to improve productivity of maize. This national programs have been established since 2005[6]. But these efforts looked like contributing less to the improvement on both national production and productivity of maize because it only focus on areas which are known as maize production-centers, rather than maize development areas (nonproduction- centers). This is consistent with the results of study of [7], [8], and [9], which stated that the maize productivity in the production-centers were difficult to be increased. Production development of areas maize are usually constituted of sub-optimal land. These areas generaly have been planted with open pollinated maize varieties which well adapted to the environment but low yielding. Eventualy, these areas contribute to the inferiority of national maize productivity. The utilization level of hybrid maize seed significantly contribute to the productivity of maize. This is in line with the results of the research of [10]-[16], which stated that open pollinated maize productivity is very low. Data on the proportion of hybrid maize seeds in Indonesia are varies. It shared 7.5% in 1995, rising to 24% in 1999 [10], and gained 28% by 2002 [6]. Meanwhile [1] stated the share of hybrid varieties was 55% in 2010 and increased to 66% in 2012. The statement of [17] admitted that the proportion of hybrid maize in 2014 was only 50%. However all researchers agreed that the proportion or share of hybrid varieties in Indonesia were still very low and needed to be improved. Due to the difficulty to increase the productivity in the production-center areas, the improvement of the proportion of hybrid maize should be focused on the development areas by utilizing appropriate cultivars. 483