Evaluation of Drought Tolerant Maize Varieties under Drought and Rain-Fed Conditions: A Rainforest Location

Abimbola Oluwaranti,Oluwatosin Temilade Ajani

doi:10.5539/jas.v8n7p153

Abstract

Newly developed drought tolerant maize (Zea mays 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&amp;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 C0 (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 C0 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.

Highlights

1.1 Maize Production and UsesMaize (Zea mays L.) is a C4 plant with specialized anatomical and biochemical features for a high photosynthetic efficiency
Ten maize varieties comprising of nine drought-tolerant maize varieties obtained from Maize breeding program of International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria and one local check variety from the Teaching and Research Farm, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife were used for the study (Table 1)
The results of significant differences observed among the two planting environments (Drought and rain-fed conditions) in 2015 early cropping season for most of the traits taken were expected because the planting dates received different amounts of temperature, rainfall, sunshine hour and potential evapotranspiration (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

1.1 Maize Production and UsesMaize (Zea mays L.) is a C4 plant with specialized anatomical and biochemical features for a high photosynthetic efficiency. Adaptability of varieties to different climates varies widely. FAOSTAT (2012) ranked Nigeria among the highest producers of maize in Africa, this is partly because maize is highly adapted to all the agro-climatic conditions in the country and a large production area devoted to the production. Maize grain has a variety of uses such as for human consumption, livestock feed and ethanol production (Milander, 2015). Maize is a staple food for more than 300 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa and a number of countries in these geographic regions. Drought occurred in the same season, creating regional food shortages that cannot be alleviated by cross-border trade. Production of maize, for instance, in Southern Africa fluctuated from 12.5 million tons in 1992 (which was a drought year) to 23.5 million tons in 1993 (Edmeades, 2008)

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