Groundnut is an important legume crops for small scale farmers in different parts of Tigray region where recurrent drought stress and land degradation severely affects its yield and quality. Drought stress is the main yield and quality limiting factors in most of the groundnut producing regions. This study aimed at assessing the effect of drought stress on groundnut performance and differential yield response of genotypes against drought stress. Thirty-nine groundnut genotypes were included in the screening study using alpha lattice design with two replications. The genotypes were screened under 25% crop water requirement (CWR) and full irrigation (100% CWR) using CropWat and NewLoclime sowtwares. Significant difference among the genotypes was observed for yield and related traits. The average yield of the genotypes under severe stress (25% CWR) were 335.35 kg/ha while they scored an average yield of 1222 kg/ha under full irrigation conditions. Peg elongation and kernel filling are among the most important traits affected by drought stress which leads to yield reduction. Correlation among drought tolerance and yielding potential traits is important for selective improvement of that specific trait. In this study, under 25% CWR regime important drought tolerance traits such as root dry weight found to be significantly correlated with number of leaves per main stem (r=0.509), leaf length (r=0.443), plant height (r=0.509), and canopy temperature (r=0.347). This study determines that drought stress can affect yielding potential of groundnut significantly and identifying the correlation of important traits has an ultimate importance in groundnut breeding for drought stress tolerance.

Keywords: Central Tigray; drought; groundnut; yield