Abstract—Corn ranked in the second position of important cereal crops after paddy rice in Indonesia. Although this commodity is still imported from other countries in almost recent year, it is considered to be main crop as a food, feed and industrial material. Hybrid cultivars are the key point to echieve self-sufficient national target. To establish prosperous hybrid cultivars a participatory variety selection has been implemented in the breeding program of corn by researchers of Brawijaya University. Such approach was developed to ensure that new cultivars satisfy farmer’s preferences and suit industrials or economic trades. In the first season, three farmer groups from different regency with 20 persons in each, i.e., Nganjuk, Blitar and Sumenep, were separately encouraged to select 10 best candidates from a pool of 200 F1 Hybrids in the research station managed by Brawijaya University. Selection was mainly based on agronomic traits such as time to maturity, height, disease resistance, and grain yield and grain performance. The candidates selected by every farmer goup were then re-planted and re-evaluated by themself in their own land with different agroecological areas. Statistical analysis was applied to deduce which cultivar(s) were most preferable by farmers and considered to be prospective new cultivars in advance. The results of the study showed that three candidates selected by farmer group’s have been consistently succeded in the position of five most preferable candidates in each regency. A bit different criteria based on plant height and disease resistance was found in relatively drought region, Sumenep. Eastern Java. Indonesia.
 

Index Terms—participatory varietal selection, corn, cultivar establishment, Indonesia

Cite:  Arifin Noor Sugiharto, Tatiek Koerniawati Andajani, and Nur Baladina, "Effectiveness of Participatory Varietal Selection in Corn Cultivar Establishment," Journal of Advanced Agricultural Technologies, Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 318-323, September 2017. Doi: 10.18178/joaat.4.4.318-323