Aims: To evaluate drought-tolerant (DT) maize varieties for water use efficiency at the seedling and grain filling stages and determine the relationship between water use efficiency and grain yield of the DT maize varieties since information about the water use efficiency of these DT maize varieties is limited in literature. Study Design: The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) in three replicates. Place and Duration of Study:The planting was carried out just at the beginning of the early cropping season (March) (Drought) as well as the peak of rain for early cropping season
<p>Newly developed drought tolerant maize (<em>Zea mays</em> L.) varieties have been hypothesized to be of different genetic make-ups, hence this study was conducted to evaluate drought-tolerant maize varieties under drought and rain-fed conditions, identify the highest yielding varieties and determine the relationship between agronomic traits and varieties’ yield under these conditions in a rainforest location. Nine drought tolerant varieties of maize and a local check were evaluated during the early part of the early cropping season (March) (Drought) as well as the actual early cropping season (May-June) (Rain-fed) of 2015 at the Teaching and Research Farm (T&RF) of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (7°28'N, 4°33'E and 244 m above sea level). There were significant differences among the two environments for all the traits measured. The performance of the drought tolerant maize varieties is better under the rain-fed condition. The yield performance of all varieties are not significantly different from each other (1.36 tons/ha to 2.75 tons/ha) under drought except EVDT-W 2000 STR C<sub>0</sub> (1.10 tons/ha). All the varieties evaluated under rain-fed condition produce higher grain yield (2-44 tons/ha-3.69 tons/ha) which are not significantly different each other. All the yield components except ear height and length had a strong positive relationship with grain yield under drought while only ear number and weight had relationship with yield under rain-fed condition. In conclusion, among the drought tolerant maize varieties, EVDT-W 2000 STR C<sub>0</sub> need further improvements to drought. Furthermore, ear weight can be used to select parents for the development of drought tolerant maize varieties in this agro-ecology.</p>
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