Abstract
Abstract Global weather changes compel agriculture to be adequately productive under diverse and marginal conditions. In maize, modern hybrids fail to meet this requirement. Although breeding has achieved spectacular progress in grain yield per area through improved tolerance to stresses, including intense crowding, yields at low plant population densities remain almost unchanged. Stagnated plant yield potential renders hybrids unable to take advantage of resource abundance at lower populations, designating them population dependent. Consequently, the optimum population varies greatly across environments. Generally, the due population increases as the environmental yield potential gets higher. As a remedy, relatively low populations are recommended for low-input conditions leading to inappropriate population in occasional adequacy of resources and considerable yield loss. For example, for a rain-fed hybrid tested at one location across 11 seasons, crop yield potential and optimum population on the basis of the quadratic yield-plateau model varied from 1,890 to 8,980 kg/ha and 4.56 to 10.2 plants/m 2 , respectively, while 100 % yield loss is computed in the driest season if the optimum population for the most favorable season is used. The article reviews the consequences in terms of crop sustainability under widely diverse environments imposed by climatic changes and proposes crop management strategies to address the situation. The major points are: (1) variable-yielding environments require variable optimum populations, (2) population dependence is an insurmountable barrier in making a decision on plant population, (3) farmers suffer from considerable yield and income loss, (4) estimating the less population-dependent hybrids among the currently cultivated ones is a major challenge for agronomists, and (5) the development of population-neutral hybrids is a fundamental challenge for maize breeding. Honeycomb breeding is a valuable tool to pursue this goal since it places particular emphasis on the so-far stagnated plant yield potential that is essential for population-neutral hybrid development.
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Claims 11
Claim · model-written summary
Modern maize hybrids fail to meet productivity needs under diverse marginal conditions.
Zea maysOrganisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“In maize, modern hybrids fail to meet this requirement.”
Claim · model-written summary
Breeding improved grain yield per area through stress tolerance.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“breeding has achieved spectacular progress in grain yield per area through improved tolerance to stresses”
t0“maize”
Claim · model-written summary
Yield at low maize population densities has remained almost unchanged.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“yields at low plant population densities remain almost unchanged.”
t0“maize”
Claim · model-written summary
Optimum maize plant population varies greatly across environments.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“the optimum population varies greatly across environments.”
t0“maize”
Claim · model-written summary
The appropriate maize population rises with environmental yield potential.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“the due population increases as the environmental yield potential gets higher.”
t0“maize”
Claim · model-written summary
Across 11 seasons, modeled yield potential ranged from 1,890 to 8,980 kg/ha.
- Material
- rain-fed hybride0
- Outcome
- crop yield potentiale0
- Direction
- variede0
- Value
- 1,890 to 8,980 kg/hae0
- Qualifier
- across 11 seasonse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“for a rain-fed hybrid tested at one location across 11 seasons, crop yield potential and optimum population on the basis of the quadratic yield-plateau model varied from 1,890 to 8,980 kg/ha and 4.56 to 10.2 plants/m 2 , respectively”
t0“maize”
Claim · model-written summary
Across 11 seasons, modeled optimum population ranged from 4.56 to 10.2 plants/m 2.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“for a rain-fed hybrid tested at one location across 11 seasons, crop yield potential and optimum population on the basis of the quadratic yield-plateau model varied from 1,890 to 8,980 kg/ha and 4.56 to 10.2 plants/m 2 , respectively”
t0“maize”
Claim · model-written summary
Using the population optimal in the most favorable season was computed to cause 100% yield loss in the driest season.
- Outcome
- yield losse0
- Value
- 100 %e0
- Qualifier
- in the driest season if the optimum population for the most favorable season is usede0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“100 % yield loss is computed in the driest season if the optimum population for the most favorable season is used.”
t0“maize”
Claim · model-written summary
Variable-yielding environments require variable optimum maize populations.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“variable-yielding environments require variable optimum populations”
t0“maize”
Claim · model-written summary
Developing population-neutral maize hybrids is a fundamental breeding challenge.
- Outcome
- development of population-neutral hybridse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“the development of population-neutral hybrids is a fundamental challenge for maize breeding.”
Claim · model-written summary
Honeycomb breeding is proposed to pursue population-neutral hybrids.
- Outcome
- Honeycomb breeding is a valuable tool to pursue this goale0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Honeycomb breeding is a valuable tool to pursue this goal since it places particular emphasis on the so-far stagnated plant yield potential that is essential for population-neutral hybrid development.”
t0“maize”