| The drought and scarcity of water resources are more and more serious, which restrict agricultural development, especially maize production in China.So it is very important to choose cultivars with high yield and drought resistance.30 maize cultivars were planted under the water stress and non-stress treatments designed in PVC shed, drought shed and field, of which the yield was tested under two treatments.A new concept, the stressed stability index (SSI) , was brought forward to evaluate the drought-resistance capability of the cultivars.After comparing the influence of a kind of water stressed condition on choosing the cultivars to many kinds of water stressed conditions, and the influence of SSI and HSC (high-yield stability coefficient) , a new method of choosing maize cultivars with high yield and drought-resistance was set up.The results showed that it was unreliable in a kind of water stressed condition to choose the cultivars using drought resistance coefficient and the yield under non-stress treatment. In many kinds of water stressed conditions it was more feasible to evaluate and choose cultivars of high yield and drought-resistance using the the yield under non-stress treatment and SSI than using the the yield under non-stress treatment and drought resistance coefficient.With this new method, which was easy to use in breeding, Tiantai 16, Nongda 81, Denghai 6213, Zhongke 11 and Xiuqing 73-1 were selected from the 30 cultivars as cultivars with high yield and drought-resistance. |