Abstract:In the current set of an experiment, forty maize genotypes were assessed for drought associated traits. For evaluation of these traits, PC and correlation analyses were employed to obtain suitable parents that can be further exploited in future breeding programmes. Correlation analysis revealed some important associations among the traits studied. Fresh root length had positive and significant associations, but leaf temperature had a significant negative correlation with root density at both 40% and 100% moisture levels while root density had negative association at 100% and positive correlation at 40% moisture level with chlorophyll content. The positive correlation among these yield contributing traits suggested that these characters are important for direct selection of drought tolerant high yielding genotypes. Principal component (PC) analysis showed first 4 PCs having Eigen value >1 explaining 86.7% and 88.4% of the total variation at 40% and 100% moisture levels respectively with different drought related traits. Cluster analysis classified 40 accessions into four divergent groups. The members of clusters 1 and 2 may be combined in future breeding programmes to obtain genotypes/hybrids that can perform well under drought stress conditions. Members of cluster 3 may be selected on the basis of root density, leaf temperature, dry root weight and root shoot ratio by weight and can be combined with members of cluster 4 due to higher leaf temperature and root shoot ratio by length. The results showed that the germplasm having a wide genetic diversity can be thus utilized for future breeding programme to obtain drought tolerant maize genotypes/ hybrids for adaptation to water scarce areas.