Estimation of Combining Ability and Heterosis for Grain Yield

Maize, being popular as a food item, is enjoyed by people in various forms, like whole maize, flour, starch, gluten, syrup, meal, oil, popcorn, flakes form. Apart from satisfying the taste buds of its users, maize is also a good source of vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber. Maize occupies an important position among the crops both as food, feed and is used as raw material in industrial production starch, oil, protein, alcoholic beverages, recently biofuel, food sweeteners, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, films, textiles, gums, package and paper industries etc. It is most versatile photo insensitive crop with high adaptability; hence maize is referred to as "Miracle Crop". Being C4 plant, it is physiologicaly more efficient and has higher grain yield potential compared to other graminae family members. So it's regarded as "Queen of Cereals". The demand for maize in developing countries is expected to be about 504 million tones by 2020 and this is expected to exceed the demand of both wheat and rice. To meet this demand, there is a need to increase the maize production by exploiting heterosis and developing new hybrids. Increased production per unit area is objective of maize breeding.