Screening of castor germplasm accessions for drought tolerance

An experiment was conducted to idendify germplasm lines for drought tolerance among one hundred extra early and early maturing lines sown during late rabi. Drought was imposed at 25 DAS and released at, 85 DAS. After relieving stress, secondary and teriary branches production increased in stressed plants. Germplasm lines that maintained growth in terms of plant height, branches production and stem girth as that of control plants even under stress were RG 17, RG 18, RG 22, RG 25, RG 43, RG 52, RG 68, RG 72, and RG 90. The lines that showed less than 30% yield reduction due to stress and with low drought susceptibility index were RG 72 (11%), RG 17 (22%) and RG 52 (27%).