One way to improve maize yields in drought prone small holder farming areas, where soils are mostly sandy with low organic matter and low cation exchange capacity is through breeding for drought tolerance and high nitrogen use efficiency. Low N tolerant cultivars have enhanced uptake capacity for nitrogen or have more efficient use of absorbed N in grain production hence are superior in the utilization of available N. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of maize new hybrids under low nitrogen conditions at the Department of Research and Specialist Services in Harare, Zimbabwe. The experiment was set up to evaluate twenty five (25) new unreleased hybrids of early drought tolerant maize genotypes under low nitrogen conditions. An alpha lattice design, replicated three times was used for the study. New hybrids: 103WH125, 103WH123, 103WH52, 113WH1438, 113WH1454 and 113WH637 had a significantly higher (p<0.05) yield than standard commercial varieties. There was no significant difference (p>0.05) between the new hybrids and commercial varieties in ear height, number of ears per plant, root and stem lodging scores. Therefore, the results suggest that new hydrids that showed higher yield potential under N stress conditions maybe advanced for adaptive trials throughout the country to measure their yield stability in diverse agro-ecological regions including those affected by N deficiency and frequent and severe droughts.

Keywords: Nutrient deficiency, nitrogen use efficiency, maize new hybrids, early drought tolerance