Maize is one of the most important cereals in the world. The goal of breeding programs is to maximize genetic gain per unit of time, therefore in breeding programs it is important to find secondary traits that are correlated with yield and have high heritability, which enables indirect selection for traits of interest. The approach to indirect selection by statistical modeling using sensors and physiological data represents a new challenge of modern plant breedingl. The study of photosynthetic mechanisms is a very important line of research in order to achieve a better understanding of the impact of unfavorable external conditions on maize production. Chlorophyll fluorescence analysis is one of the most used techniques for studying the effects of stress on photosynthesis. The application of chlorophyll fluorescence has significantly improved in the last two decades. Many different informative parameters have been developed to determine the efficiency of PSII and the distribution of light energy by alternative mechanisms. In this study, genetic variability in chlorophyll a fluorescence parameters, genetic correlations between chlorophyll a fluorescence parameters and agronomic properties, and variance structure in 16 corn hybrids were determined. Additional goals were to develop a regression model with chlorophyll a fluorescence parameters as predictors and agronomic traits as dependent variables, to investigate the structure of variance and heritability of predictions, and to evaluate the effectiveness of indirect selection in relation to direct selection. Analysis of variance showed statistically significant effects of genotype, year, replication and block for the trait Fv/Fm. Significant differences in Fv/Fm values were found between the evaluated maize hybrids. The model with 10 latent variables has a higher predictive ability for yield prediction compared to other models. The use of fluorescence transients can be useful in predicting grain moisture at harvest. The efficiency of indirect selection for grain yield was lower than that of direct selection, while the efficiency of indirect selection for grain moisture was relatively high. The results of this research emphasize the importance and applicability of chlorophyll a fluorescence parameters in maize breeding programs.