_____________________________________________________________________________________________________ *Corresponding author: E-mail: chithuragul@gmail.com, neethufaloor@gmail.com; International Journal of Plant & Soil Science 33(23): 246-252, 2021; Article no.IJPSS.76878 ISSN: 2320-7035 Rapid Screening of Small Millet Varieties for Seedling Stage Drought Stress Tolerance Neethu Francis a , R. Ravikesavan b* , K. Iyanar b , M. Raveendran c , T. Chitdeshwari d and A. Senthil e a Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Centre for Plant Breeding and Genetics, Tamil Nadu, Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. b Department of Millets, Centre for Plant Breeding and Genetics, Tamil Nadu, Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. c Department of Plant Biotechnology, Centre for Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. d Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. e Department of Crop Physiology,Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. Authors’ contributions This work was carried out in collaboration among all authors. Author NF designed the study, performed the statistical analysis, wrote the protocol, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Author RR designed and supervised the study, proof reading and editing of manuscript. Author KI managed the statistical analyses of the study. Authors MR, TC, AS Inputs on designingthe study and interpretation of results. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Article Information DOI: 10.9734/IJPSS/2021/v33i2330739 Editor(s): (1) Dr. Hon H. Ho, State University of New York, USA. Reviewers: (1) Sooriya Arachchige Sachini, Industrial Technology Institute, Sri Lanka. (2) Dominic Chukwuka Ndulue, University of Nigeria, Nigeria. Complete Peer review History, details of the editor(s), Reviewers and additional Reviewers are available in this link: https://www.sdiarticle5.com/review-history/76878 Received 10 September 2021 Accepted 20 November 2021 Published 23 November 2021 ABSTRACT Aim: Drought is one of the most important abiotic stresses that affect the yield of crops globally. The present investigation was conducted to identify small millet genotypes tolerant to seedling stage drought stress. Study Design: The experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications with genotypes and stress treatments as factors. Place and Duration of Study: It was carried out at Department of millets, Centre for plant breeding and genetics, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, during 2019. Original Research Article