Fig. 8

Extent of tolerant accessions in different drought and related screening experiments. a Seedling vigour scoring taken 15 days after sowing in upland culture, b Drought resistance score (DSR) at early vegetative (tillering) stage (50 to 60 days) of both the early and late-maturing varieties, c Drought resistance score at late vegetative stage (80-100 days) of late-maturing varieties, d Rate of recovery after the 1st stress, e Rate of recovery after the 2nd stress, f Drought resistance score at reproductive stage, g Drought tolerance score of accessions at 3-4 bars soil moisture, h Drought tolerance score of accessions at 9-10 bars soil moisture, i Rate of recovery after exposure to 2nd drought. Scores were taken after 10 days following soaking rain or watering j-k Geographic distribution pattern of drought tolerant accessions identified by direct selection, i.e., yield performance in field conditions, j Latitude-wise distribution, k Longitude-wide distribution, l Area of preference. List of tolerant accessions can be found in Additional file 4: Table S1