Phenotypic characterization of maize landraces from Sahel and Coastal West Africa reveals marked diversity and potential for genetic improvement

Landraces of maize (Zea mays L.) are invaluable sources of genetic variability for improving agronomic traits, and they hold great promise in developing new maize varieties with enhanced resilience to stresses. This study investigated the extent of phenotypic diversity among 196 maize landraces, representing gene pools from Burkina Faso, Ghana and Togo, and 14 improved populations/varieties from the Maize Improvement Program of International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA-MIP). Wide genetic diversity was observed between Burkinabe and improved gene pools, suggesting that the original Sahelian gene pool might not have contributed much to modern cultivars. This gene pool offers opportunities for pre-breeding by providing novel alleles for enriching elite maize germplasm.