ABSTRACT

Rice is the third most important cereal crop in the world,today after wheat and maize. Although rice is grown worldwide, there are some constraints which limit its production. These constraints include pests and diseases attack, inadequate supply of chemical and nutrients, iron toxixity, heat and drought tolerance and adaptability of high yielding varieties to limited geographyical regions. Drought causes moistUre stress in rice plants resulting to wilting of leaves, spikelet sterility, and also encourages infestation of rice fields by diseases and pests. These reduce yield in rice production. Since upland soils in rice gorwing African regions have low water holding capacity, identification of tolerance rice varieties is very important. One hundred. (100) rice breeding lines planted in Pots/under Umudike conditions were subjected to water stress. Two months and Seven(7)days after the last irrigation/rainfall, plants were scored for drought tolerance. Data were also collected on plant Vigor, plant height, tiller number per stand, number of leaves per plant, length of root, width of root, mass of dried root, mass of dried whole plant and root percentage. High Root mass and high mass of vegetative parts are mechanisms for drought tolerance.

TABLE OF CONTENT

Title of the Project i

Abstract

Acknowledgement

Certification iv

Dedication v

Table of Contents vi

List of plates vii-ix

Chapter 1. Introduction and Objectives 1 - 3

Chapter 2 Literature review 4 - 16

Chapter 3 Materials and Method 17-18

Chapter 4 Results, Discussion and conclusion 19- 26

Tables 27

References 38 - 39