Evaluation of highland maize at Bule hora District of Southern Oromia, Southern Ethiopia

In order to evaluate the performance of highland maize, an experiment was conducted at Bule hora district of southern Ethiopia by introducing five highland maize from Ambo Plant Protection Research Center and Bako Agriculture Research Center, during the main cropping season of 2010 and 2011. The experiment was carried out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The data were recorded on plant height, ear height, number of ears/plot, grain yield and 1000 grain weight. All the varieties showed significant differences with each other for all the parameters studied. Variety Jibat had the highest grain yield of 9.677t/ha. The highest plant height of 205.1 cm was recorded from BH660. The maximum number of ear per plant was recorded from AMH851(Jibat). The maximum value for 1000 grain weight was shown by AMH851 (405 g). Therefore, maize variety AMH851 (Jibat) was found to be the most promising, which has the potential to increase the average yield of maize in Bule hora district and is therefore recommended for the replacement of the low yield land race of the area. Key words: Highland maize, Bule hora, Jibat, AMH51.