Maize hybrids yield in an agriculture frontier region in the Northeast of the State of Maranhão, Brazil

Abstract

Maranhão is a state where the mechanized agriculture is rapidly expanding and that has an excellent potential for agribusiness development and agricultural products exportation. However, there is still a lack of research in the region, including studies about maize cultivation. This fact led to the development of this work aiming to evaluate the yield of modern maize hybrids. Thus, 42 hybrids were evaluated during the year of 2008, in two
locations (Anapurus and Brejo) in the agricultural frontier region of the Northeast of the State of Maranhão. The average yields were of 5,593 kg ha^-1 in the combined analysis, 5,097 kg ha^-1 in Anapurus and 6,089 kg ha^-1 in Brejo, showing a great regional potential for maize cultivation. There were significant differences between hybrids and the locations, being possible to find hybrids with yields above 8,000 kg ha^-1 when cultivar and environment
variables were maximized. However, no significant interaction was observed between hybrids and locations. In general, the simple hybrids were superior to the triples and doubles, and the triple hybrids were better than the doubles, although the difference was not always statistically significant.