The Response of North Central-East Maize Accessions to Waterlogging Stress at 5 Leaf Stage

Student: Aisosa Laura Aikpitanyi (Project, 2025)
Department of Crop Science
University of Benin, Benin City, Edo State

Abstract

ABSTRACT This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of waterlogging treatments and genetic variation among maize accessions from Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Nasarawa, Plateau, and Taraba states in North Central-East Nigeria on growth characters under controlled conditions at the Department of Crop Science Screenhouse, University of Benin. The experiment was laid out in a completely randomized design (CRD), maize was grown in 15-liter buckets filled with 13 kg of sieved topsoil and was waterlogged at the 5-leaf stage and evaluated over an 11 weeks duration for plant height, leaf length, leaf width, leaf area, chlorotic leaf count, dead leaf count, taselling, silking and ear height. Cultural practices included thrice-weekly watering (450 ml), NPK 15:15:15 fertilization, and light weeding. Data were collected as from 2 weeks after planting. The result obtained showed that waterlogging treatments reduced the maize growth parameters (Number of leaf, leaf area, plant height and survival rate). At the end of the experiment, three accessions from Bauchi, Nasarawa, and Taraba survived waterlogging imposed at 5 leaf stage and four weeks duration, indicating genetic tolerance to waterlogging. These accessions will be utilized in breeding programs to develop waterlogging tolerant maize varieties.

Keywords
Waterlogging maize North central-east 5‑leaf stage stress response tolerance.
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