Identification of stable genotypes across the ecologies using GGE analysis

Abstract

Maize is an important cereal crop after wheat and rice. It is grown on a wide range of environments across the world. Genotype × environment interaction affects the relationship between phenotype and genotype in breeding programmes, particularly for quantitative traits. So, multi environment trials (MET) are used for identification of stable genotypes across the environments. To assess the differential performance of the 18 maize hybrids, an experiment was conducted under three different moisture regimes viz., irrigated, rainfed and drought condition. Amongst tested hybrids ZH 161361, ZH 161311 and ZH 161083 were the most superior hybrids with grain yield 9.274, 7.845 and 7.774 t/ha across the environments. Four hybrids, viz., ZH 161114, ZH 161276, ZH 161137 and ZH 161042 recorded > 70 per cent yield reduction under drought condition in comparison to optimum input level. The top performing genotypes, viz., ZH 161038, ZH 161361 and ZH 161083 also performed poorly under rainfed and drought conditions. The yield reduction of these genotypes varied from 33.99 to 48.01 per cent under rainfed conditions, whereas the same was 46.2 to 70.7 per cent under drought conditions. Among the top performing hybrids ZH 161083 was the most stable hybrid across the locations, whereas ZH 161361 and ZH 161038 were less stable hybrids. ZH 161361 was the best performing genotype both under optimum and drought condition with grain yield 17.239 and 9.274 t/ha, whereas ZH 161083 out performed under rainfed condition than rest of the hybrids.