Proceedings of the Fifth Asian Regional Maize Workshop - Search ...

ut they have been selecting ears from good performing plants and using these as sources of new
seed for the next season. The reduction of CPI-1 hybrid made in experimental plots was only 7.6%
(Table 6). Observations in farmer's fields indicated that the yield of the F2 of CPI-1 hybrid
was 4.62 t/ha, while the F1 yielded 6.25 t/ha, with a reduction of 26% (farmer's information)
(Table 9). Although the F2-F4 yields lower than the F1, their yield is still higher than that of
the local variety.
Table 8. Area and yield of hybrid and open pollinated varieties of maize in E. Java. 1987-1991.
Year
Hybrid
Area
(ha)
% of
total
Open pollinated
Area
% of
(ha) total
Total area
(ha)
Yield
(t/ha)
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
51,951
115,360
131,935
114,995
91,616
4.9
9.4
10.9
9.8
8.3
1,015,127
1,114,407
1,075,703
1,058,486
1,012,637
95.1
90.6
89.1
91.2
91.7
1,067,078
1,229,767
1,207,638
1,173,481
1,104,253
2.32
2.04
2.57
2.30
2.63
Source
East Java Agric. Extension Service.
Table 9. COst:production benefit of maize hybrid using F1 and F2 hybrid seed. Kediri 92 Dry.
Item
F1
F2
COst production (Rps.):
Land cultivation
Seed
Planting
Fertilizer
Weeding, irrigation, etc.
Harvesting & Processing
Total cost
Yield (t/ha)
Income (Rps)
Benefit (Rps)
1) Sample of 10 farmers fields
1 US$ = Rps.2,070
Grain price Rps. 2,500/kg
69,000
87,500
48,000
243,500
144,000
75,000
667,000
6,25
1,562,000
895,000
24,000
o
36,000
198,000
117,000
96,000
471,000
4,62
1,155,000
684,000
The level of fertilizer in some areas such as Kediri, E. Java was almost double the
recommended rate. The price of urea is low (Rp. 260/kg). The cost of production using F1 hybrid
maize seed was Rp. 667,OOO/ha and Rp. 471,000 when using F2-F4 seed. In the later case, farmers
were using their own seed and a lower fertilizer level. Farmers get more benefit using F1 seed
than advanced generation seed.
The problems of low adoption of hybrid maize are:
a. To save cost of seed, almost 70% of farmers use their advanced generation seed.
b. Farmers usually grow maize at high plant densities, therefore they need more seed. This
would make the crop costly since they have to buy new seed.
c. The first released hybrids C-1 and CPI-1 were top crosses, and the yield reduction in F2 is
60