Existing elite cultivars, including 112 hybrids and OPVs from CIMMYT, public, and private sector programs, were evaluated across locations under mid-season waterlogging (CIMMYT, Hyderabad, BARI, Bangladesh and RAU, Pusa Bihar) and flowering stage drought stress (CIMMYT, Hyderabad and MP UAT, Udaipur). The most drought tolerant private sector hybrids, including PAC-745, BH19, Samparn, PAC748, YSC-354, and C900MG, and the CIMMYT hybrid CML470/472 yielded an average of over 3.0 t/ha under severe drought at flowering. Under waterlogging stress, the highest-yielding public-sector hybrid KMH-408701 out-yielded the widely-grown Monsanto hybrid C900MG by about 1.5 t/ha. Comparison of the yields of the entries across the two stress treatments indicated that currently-availably hybrids combining waterlogging and drought stress tolerance are rare.  However, two public-sector hybrids, KMH 408710 and BH-19, were tolerant to both stresses.  These hybrids should be immediately useful to farmers in drought- and waterlogging-prone areas, and the results indicate that combining tolerance to both stresses is possible.

Project: Abiotic stress tolerant maize for increasing income and food security
among the poor in eastern India and Bangladesh