Research in Plant Biology, 5(6): 19-29, 2015 ISSN : 2231-5101 www.resplantbiol.com Regular Article Evaluation of some genotypes of maize (Zea mays L.) for tolerance to drought in Northern Ghana A.Bawa * , I.K. Addai and J.X. Kugbe Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana * Corresponding Author Email : abawai1@yahoo.com Pot and field studies were conducted to screen twenty five genotypes of maize for tolerance to drought in Northern Ghana during the 2012 and 2013 cropping seasons. For the pot studies, seeds were planted in June 2012 in 0.20 m × 0.30 m surface pots arranged in rows on a platform with a distance of 1 m between the rows. After emergence, 2 l of water was applied to the plants in each pot, once every week for the non-stressed treatments (control). To mimic drought conditions, the same amount of water was applied, but once every two weeks to the stress treatments. Treatments were replicated three times in a completely randomized design. For the field study, genotypes were evaluated on single-row plots of three replicates, in a randomized complete block design. Plants designated as control were planted at the normal and usual time of planting of maize in the study area (July 2013), whilst those subjected to water-stressed treatments were planted late (six weeks later) to ensure that their growth period coincides with the drought period. Results on yield and agronomic parameters showed that three of the genotypes (GUMA03-OB, KOBN03-OB and SISF03-OB) were highly tolerant to drought, whilst eleven genotypes (NYAZ04-W, TAAN04, TAIS03, TZE-Y-DT-STR-C4, NYSW03-Y, NYIA03, DORKE SR, TZE-W-DT-STR-C4, NYFA04, KOBN04-R, and CHMA04) were moderately tolerant. The rest of the genotypes showed moderate to high levels of drought susceptibility. Drought plant rating and anthesis-silking interval (ASI) were significantly reduced when plants were watered throughout the experimental period (control) as compared to those stressed. However, grain yield, plant height, ear height, days to 50% anthesis, days to 50% silking, leaf area, chlorophyll content, fresh and dry shoot weight and root length were significantly higher (P < 0.05) for the non- stressed plants as compared to those subjected to water stress. In drought-prone geographical areas like Northern Ghana, genotypes such as GUMA03-OB, KOBN03-OB and SISF03-OB or their crosses can be used for increased grain yield. Keywords: Maize; drought tolerance; savanna; Ghana Maize is a staple food that constitutes the main diet of many people in tropical and subtropical Africa (Oyekan et al., 1990). It's importance has increased as it has replaced other staple foods such as sorghum and millet (Smith et al., 1994), and it has also become a major source of cash for smallholder farmers (Smith et al., 1997). Maize has been a widely consumed staple food in Ghana since 1965 (FAO 2008; Morris et al., 1999). It is an important cereal, produced in all the five agro-ecological zones of Ghana (Obeng- Bio et al., 2002). Analysis based on 1987 maize consumption data in Ghana showed that maize and maize based foods accounted for 11% of food expenditure by the poor, and 10% of food expenditure by all income groups (SARI, 1996). Maize is grown on one million hectares of land in Northern Ghana (Dowswell et al., 1996). In spite of the enormous role that the maize industry plays in improving the lives of the people of Ghana and the world at large, the industry is bedeviled with a lot of constraints. These include lack of credit facilities to the farmers, soil degradation, erratic rainfall pattern, diseases, insect pests and weeds. In Africa, the problems of erratic rainfall pattern enormously affect maize