Caracterización agronómica, calidad industrial y nutricional de maíz para el trópico mexicano

agronomic characterization, industrial and nutritional quality of maize for the mexican tropics. the objective of this work was to determine the agronomic and nutritional value of maize varieties and hybrids in veracruz, méxico, during the spring-summer cycle of year 2006. normal and high-protein content hybrids and varieties were validated in cotaxtla, mata de agua, tlalixcoyan, ignacio de la llave, martínez de la torre y rodríguez clara, in veracruz, méxico. a randomized complete block design with two replications was employed, with plots composed of eight 25 m-long rows and a density of 62 500 seeds/ha. the combined analysis of variance showed highly significant differences for genotypes (g), locations (l), and for the interaction g x l. the outstanding genotypes for grain yield and other agronomic characteristics were: hq4, h-520, hq3 and hq1, with 5.42, 5.38, 5.13 and 5.06 mg/ha, respectively, all of which showed good plant and ear appearance. the genotypes with higher nutritional value were the white hybrids hq1, hq3 and hq4 and the yellow corn variety v-556ac . quality was assessed according to chemical and physical features, nixtamalization, dough and tortilla processing, and tryptophan and lysine content. these genotypes complied with the mexican specifications for corn destined to nixtamalization. the q1 produced the best tortillas, and the hybrid hq4 was considered appropriate for the industry of nixtamal flour process.