DEVELOPMENT OF DROUGHT AND HEAT STRESS

TOLERANCE HYBRIDS OF MAIZE (Zea mays L.)

By:
Daniel Okyere
(PG4993818)

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 PRESENTATION OUTLINE
• Introduction
• Problems Statement and Justification
• Objectives of the study
• Materials and Method
• References

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 INTRODUCTION
• Maize (Zea mays L.) is a member of the grass family Poaceae
• It occupies the second position after wheat in terms of area of
production but represents the most important cereal crop in terms of
quantity produced worldwide (Faostat, 2015)
• Forty one percent population in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) depend on
maize as major staple food (Palm et.,al)
• Drought resulting from high temperatures limits maize productivity in
SSA – causing extensive economic yield losses (Shiferaw et.,al)
o
• Increase in temperature above 30 C reduces yield by 1% under optimal
rain fed & by 2.1% under drought conditions (Cairns et.,al)
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 INTRODUCTION CONT’D
• Average optimum temp for lowland tropical maize 30 – 34oC
(Bonhomme et.,al)
• Increase in temp by 2oC reduce maize yield by 13%, while 20% reduction in
rainfall reduces maize yield by 4.2% (Sui et.,al)
• By 2030, drought and heat will reduce 40% of currently maize mega
environments unsuitable for varieties available today (Braun et.,al)
• Indicators of drought and heat stress
delay in silk emergence
abortion and poor seed set
leaf senescence
reduced kernel number and weight
drying of pollen grains
unreceptive silk (Herrero et.,al)
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PROBLEMS STATEMENT AND JUSTIFICATION
• In the development of improved drought and Heat stress
tolerance varieties, there is the need for hybridization and
screening of promising genotypes in drought proven zones

• However, the variability among maize genotypes in Nobi

with regards to drought and heat stress are not well known
and exploited. It is therefore very necessary to understand the
variability patterns and screening approaches for developing
improved drought and heat tolerance Hybrids

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 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

• To Screen advanced maize Hybrids in drought proven zones for

tolerance to combined drought and heat stress

• To Identify genotypes combining tolerance to drought and heat stress

with high yield as donors for developing resilient hybrids

• To Estimate the heritability of drought and heat stress tolerance

among selected genotypes.

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 Materials and Method
MATERIALS
• Experimental Site:Tafo(Nobi)
This experiment will be conducted at Cocoa Research Institute of
Ghana (CRIG) experimental station in Tafo at Nobi, during the dry
seasons of 2019-2022. The station is situated about 2.3°S and 37.8°E,
1000 m above sea level on the foot of a Hill (Kari, 2010)

Its soils are sandy loams that have a very high drainage (Gichuki,
2000) with bimodal rainfall patterns of less than 500mm per annum

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 MATERIALS AND METHOD CON’T
• Genetic materials
• Thirty Advanced inbred lines from IITA will be screened
for DT and HSTR

• Ten Drought and Heat stress tolerance will be selected

• The selected Drought and heat tolerance genotype selected

will be crossed with Obatampa and Okomasa

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 MATERIALS AND METHOD CON’T
• Methods
• Approach of evaluation
Irrigation withdrawn for 21 days
Irrigation resumes once/week
Data – weather and maize crop

• New three-way cross & single-cross hybrids being generated

from promising crosses for further preliminary field evaluation using
incomplete block design with three replications .
• Data will be analyzed using R statistical package and Cluster
analysis will be conducted using JMP .
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 Materials and Method CONT’D
Extra Agronomic parameters used in Screening
• The leaf number per genotype and the damaged leaf (leaf with
any injury or wiltness) number per genotype were counted
• The leaf length, leaf width, plant height will be measured using a
ruler. A vernier caliber will be used to access the stem diameter
• An infrared thermometer will be used to measure the leaf
temperature
• The plant aspect will be scored from 1-5 (with 1 being the best)
and shoot weight will be collected using a sensitive weighing
balance

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 References
• Palm, C.A., Smukler, S.M., Sullivan, C.C., Mutuo, P.K., Nyadzi, G.I. and
Walsh, M.G., 2010. Identifying potential synergies and trade-offs for
meeting food security and climate change objectives in sub-Saharan
Africa. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(46),
pp.19661-19666.
• Shiferaw, B., Prasanna, B. M., Hellin, J., & Bänziger, M. (2011). Crops
that feed the world 6. Past successes and future challenges to the role
played by maize in global food security. Food Security, 3(3), 307.
• Cairns, J. E., Hellin, J., Sonder, K., Araus, J. L., MacRobert, J. F.,
Thierfelder, C., & Prasanna, B. M. (2013). Adapting maize production
to climate change in sub-Saharan Africa. Food Security, 5(3), 345-360.

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 REFERENCES CONT’D
• Bonhomme, R., Derieux, M., & Edmeades, G. O. (1994). Flowering of
diverse maize cultivars in relation to temperature and photoperiod in
multilocation field trials. Crop science, 34(1), 156-164.
• Sui, Y., Liu, X., Jin, J., Zhang, S., Zhang, X., Herbert, S. J., & Ding, G.
(2009). Differentiating the early impacts of topsoil removal and soil
amendments on crop performance/productivity of corn and soybean
in eroded farmland of Chinese Mollisols. Field Crops Research, 111(3),
276-283.
• Braun, H. J., Atlin, G., & Payne, T. (2010). Multi-location testing as a
tool to identify plant response to global climate change. Climate
change and crop production, 1, 115-138.

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 REFERENCES CONT’D

• Herrero, M. P., & Johnson, R. R. (1981). Drought Stress and Its Effects
on Maize Reproductive Systems 1. Crop Science, 21(1), 105-110.

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