Selection for drought tolerance did not alter days to
flowering (Table 5). No significant difference in days to
flowering of NSB and SB lines was observed under stress as
well as under non-stress conditions. Thus, selection under stress
was for drought tolerance and not drought escape. The yield
advantage of stress-selected lines under stress seems to be
mainly due to higher HI under stress (Table 5). Jongdee et al.
(2002) similarly observed that the reduction in grain yield
around reproductive stress was mainly due to spikelet sterility.
The study clearly indicated that there was a positive response
to selection under severe drought stress that reduced the mean
yield of the stress trial by more than 65% compared with the
non-stress yield in both lowland and upland situations. Mild to
moderate stress levels (a 32–56% yield reduction) were not able
to distinguish clearly between genotypes with high-yield
potential and drought-tolerant genotypes. Pantuwan et al.
(2002b,c) have reported that potential spillovers from selection
for yield potential under non-stress conditions are likely to be
limited to environments where stress is relatively mild and
mean yields are greater than 50% of the non-stress yields. Our
experiment support this observation, and indicate that the stress
level in experiment should be severe enough to cause between
65 and 85% reduction in the mean yield of the stress trial as
compared to the non-stress trial to make a clear distinction
between drought-tolerant lines and the lines with high-yield
potential. Most breeding programs screening for drought
tolerance fail to impose sufficiently severe stress in their trials
and as a result are not able to accurately select drought-tolerant
lines. The use of reliable tensiometers in the stress trials, the use
of a number of drought-susceptible and tolerant checks at
repeated intervals and monitoring leaf rolling and leaf drying in
these checks as well as in the experiment as a whole, and proper
monitoring of water table depth in lowland trials are the tools
that can assist breeders in managing the proper level of stress in
their screening.