Stability and adaptability evaluation of grain sorghum varieties using GGE biplot

Abstract

In Pakistan, Sorghum can be a good domestic source of high-quality fodder and feed, because of its high protein and sugar contents. Location-specific adaptation of lines/varieties as found in the current study evidently implies that location-specific breeding needs are more importance than concentrating on wider adaptability. Another point of consideration is that it is essential to recognize location-specific cultivars over location and multi-year data for their consideration before commercial release for the sake of stability of the cultivar. This is important not only to sorghum only but also in other crops as well. The G × E interaction of six Pakistani experimental sorghum lines produced by Pedigree method and two check cultivars were evaluated for days to 50% flowering, stalk weight, grain yield and Brix value along with their stability and/or adaptability across two locations and two years, under randomized complete block (RCB) design. Three replications were used for each treatment. The combined analyses of variance of all the studied characters showed that they were affected significantly by environments (E), genotypes (G) and genotype by environment interaction (G × E) in every year except for the environment in Brix value. The ideal genotype evaluation proved that YSS-10 was the best line for the all four environments. Dera Gazi Khan is an ideal location for testing grain sorghum genotypes. The ’Which-won-where’ biplots indicated a crossover type of G × E between experimental lines YSS-10 and YSS-18 for the grain yield