College of Agriculture & Natural Resources

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Browsing College of Agriculture & Natural Resources by Author "Abrokwah, Obed Amponsah"

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    Screening of maize(Zea Mays L.) inbred lines for tolerance to drought
    (2015-07-13) Abrokwah, Obed Amponsah
    An experiment was conducted in the plant house at the mechanization department of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) to determine the drought tolerance levels of twelve maize (Zea mays L) genotypes as a basis for the development of drought tolerant maize hybrids. Eight inbred lines and four varieties with different genetic backgrounds were used in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with four replications. Water was withdrawn at six weeks after planting and resumed at ten days interval for the water stressed maize genotypes and the non stressed maize genotypes received water throughout the experiment. Data were collected on plant height, leaf moisture content, dry matter yield, root dry mass, and grain yield. Individual means of water stressed genotypes were compared to their corresponding non-stressed in a pairwise comparison analyses (t-test) and LSD was used to determine differences in treatment means at 5% probability level. There were significant differences among the maize genotypes as regards to the water treatments and the parameters measured (plant height, leaf moisture content, dry matter yield, root dry mass, and grain yield). Water stress decreased growth and development of maize genotypes significantly. An exception was Aburohemaa which did not show any significant difference between the water stress and non-stress conditions for plant height. Weak positive correlations were obtained between grain yield and leaf moisture content (r2 = 0.02), grain yield and root dry mass ( r2 = 0.03), grain yield and plant height (r2 = 0.142). However, there was a weak negative correlation between grain yield and dry matter yield (r2 = -0.159). With performance as regards to Drought Susceptibility Index (DSI) which is a measure of yield stability (DSI = (1- Yd / Yw) / D. Where Yd = mean yield under drought, Yw = mean yield under well-watered conditions, and D = drought intensity = 1- (mean yield of all genotypes under drought / mean yield of all genotypes under well-watered conditions), maize genotypes Tzeei 4, Tzeei 76, Tzeei 1 and Aburohemaa could be recommended to be used as source for drought tolerance in maize breeding programme.