Drought research

Two trials were conducted to screen germplasm for heat and drought tolerance. In the 1st, the performance of 25 genotypes under terminal drought stress was assessed. Lines A344, A268, A286, BAT 336, A442, BAT 477, Umvoti, and Domino were high-yielding (811, 750, 713, 717, 665, 659, 608, and 667 kg/ha, resp.) and heat- and drought-tolerant; the 1st 4 genotypes were also resistant to angular leaf spot and rust. In the 2nd trial, the performance of genotypes from North and South America and Central and Southern Africa under controlled drought stress was evaluated. Outstanding performance of Sapelekedwa and 8-7 was confirmed. In another trial to assess the performance of promising cv. identified under drought conditions in Ethiopia and Latin America, BAT 1198, V 8025, G 5059, Mexican 142, and Ex Rico 23 were the top 5 high-yielding lines. Genotypes from the Malawian germplasm collection were also evaluated under soil moisture conditions. Lines 6-1, 8-7, and 25-2 outyielded the rest (yields up to 808 kg/ha); they also had large no. of pods/plot and proved to be very tolerant to drought conditions. (CIAT)