Abstract:
The yield performance of crop varieties is highly affected by genotype x environment
interaction, which is the major concern to plant breeders while developing improved
varieties. In Ethiopia, high yielding, early maturing and stable varieties that wisthstand
drought in the dry lowland areas are limited. In view of this, the yield performance of 60
early maturing advanced sorghum genotypes were tested at five locations with the objectives
of estimating the magnitude of GxE for grain yield and other traits and to identify high yielder
and stable genotypes across locations. The experiment was conducted using Randomized
Complete Block Design with Row Column arrangement and three replications. Grain yield,
phenological and other traits were recorded. The Residual Maximum Likelihood combined
analysis of variance across locations showed very highly significant (P<0.0001) difference
for grain yield among locations and significant (P<0.05) among genotypes and highly
significant (P<0.0001) among interactions for most of the traits studied. Significant variation
for locations and genotype indicates variation in the performance of genotypes for grain
yield, phonological and other traits in different environments. On the other hand, significant
GxE interaction showed inconsistency in the performance of sorghum genotypes across
locations. Based on Eberhart and Russell’stability analysis, genotypes 05MW6026,
14MWLSDT7207, 14MWLSDT7332, 12MW6444, 12MW6302 and 14MWLSDT7042 were the
most stable and high yielders. The AMMI stability value showed that genotypes
14MWLSDT7207, 05MW6026 and 14MWLSDT7234 were the high yielders and stable, while
the GGE stability value showed that genotypes 14MWLSDT7207, 05MW6026,
14MWLSDT7209 and 12MW6440 were the best yielders and stable ones. Results of ASV
parameter also showed six most widely stable and high yielder genotypes i.e.,
13MWF6#6037, 05MW6026, 14MWLSDT7207, 14MWLSDT7234,14MWLSDT7042 and
12MW6440. Genotypes 05MW6026 and 14MWLSDT7207, were selected with four stability
parameters as a high yielder and stable, and therefore, are the promising ones. Generally,
this study showed the importance of testing early maturing sorghum genotypes for their yield
and stability across diverse dry lowland areas of Ethiopia
