engleski

Maize breeding in Croatia

In Croatia today, maize is grown on about 400 000 ha yearly. It was first time introduced to today's Croatia during the second half of XVIth century. The first significant maize breeding success at the territory of Croatia was the open pollinated dent variety Rumski Zlatni Zuban (Ruma's Golden Dent Variety). It was obtained from the cross between the variety Queen of Prerie and the adapted flint type maize. After the World War I from the latter germplasm the varieties Beljski Zuban (Belie's Dent Variety) and after World War II Vukovarski Zlatni Zuban (Vukovar's Yellow Dent Variety) were developed. Between the two World Wars the most popular open pollinated variety of flint type was Hrvatica. Also quite widely grown was the flint variety Osmak (Eight Row Variety) and the dent type Korićev brzak (Koric's Early Dent) and Maksimirski rani zuban (Maksimir's Early Dent). Among the two World Wars two most important breeders-scientists were prof. Korić and prof. Tavčar. In 1950-es North American hybrids as well as various inbreds were introduced to Croatia. The American hybrids at that time lacked good adaptability to the Croatian growing conditions. They were especially susceptible to Helminthosporium turcicum. Difficulties were experienced with seed production too. Consequently, Croatian breeders started improving latter traits of the available inbred lines and developing new hybrids. First Croatian maize breeding program was started in the Institute for Plant Breeding and Production Botinec, near Zagreb in 1947. The author was Drago Palaveršić. Soon afterwards maize breeding program was started in the Agricultural Institute Osijek as well. During the last 50 years maize yield in Croatia has been increased for more than four times. There have been registered all together 386 domestic hybrids in the country and 40 abroad to the Croatian maize breeders. Presently, in Croatia maize breeding is carried out in two institutes, Bc Institute for Plant Breeding and Production in Zagreb which is a private institution, and in the Agricultural Institute Osijek in Osijek, a public institution. There is also a new seed establishment CT SJEME in Zagreb. In the commercial production are present also "Pioneer" hybrids with 25 to 30% and some other foreign seed companies with a small percentage of the total production. Breeding goals of Croatian breeders can be defined as "Development of better yielding inbreds and hybrids FAO 100/200 - 600/700, of good stability and adaptability, of standard kernel quality, as well as hybrids for special use".

Maize; Breeding; Hybrids; Croatia

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