Drought is among the severe abiotic stresses that reduces crop yield. It greatly affects the growth and development at both vegetative and reproductive stages and the yield processes of crops. Maize is the third most important and widely distributed crop, suffering from drought stress, resulting in final kernel yield losses. The conduct of a screening experiment selected drought-sensitive and drought-tolerant maize accessions against water stress applied via calculating field capacity. This experiment used two treatments, T₀ and T₁ (T₀ with 100% field capacity and T₁ with 50% field capacity), in a completely randomized design (CRD) with a factorial arrangement and two replications at the wirehouse, Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan. Recording data on seedling traits ensued. Drought-tolerant and drought-sensitive accessions’ selection resulted from principal component analysis, with a conclusion that the accessions H45C × H6B, H21 × H2B, H17 × H16, H23 × H21, H17 × H16A were drought tolerant, while H20 × H7C, H47A × H6C, and H9 × H21 were drought sensitive. This research will provide information in the future for comparing drought-sensitive and drought-tolerant accessions and help identify drought-tolerant maize accessions benefitting future breeding programs.

Keywords: Drought stress, screening, production, genetic variability, selection, principle component analysis, drought tolerant, drought-sensitive

Key findings: Among 50 accessions screened against drought stress, the accessions H45C × H6B, H21 × H2B, H17 × H16, H23 × H21, and H17 × H16A were drought tolerant, while H20 × H7C, H47A × H6C, and H9 × H21 were drought sensitive. These accessions will benefit future breeding programs for comparing drought-sensitive and drought-tolerant accessions to develop drought-tolerant maize accessions.