In Ethiopia, drought usually occur due to delay in onset, dry spell after sowing, drought during critical crop stage (flowering and grain filling stage) and too early cessation of rainfall. These situations can be addressed by developing improved sorghum varieties which are resistance to drought. Developments of sorghum varieties resistant to drought and producing better grain yield while addressing the plant biomass requirement is one of the strategies in the sorghum breeding program in dry lowland environment. A total of 90 early maturing sorghum genotypes were evaluated along with two standard check varieties to estimate the grain yield, plant height, days to flowering, days to maturity and overall agronomic aspects and stability of performance across the test environments. The trial was conducted using Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) in row and column arrangement. Linear mixed model has been used to predict and identify stable and superior varieties across the test environment. Correlations of the trials range from positive +1 to -1 where positive correlation is an indication of similarity among the testing environments while negative correlation is an indication of non-similarity among testing environments. Moreover, using the biplot it was observed that the stability and correlation among testing site where the angle between the two lines measure the strength of correlation. Improvement in heritability has been obtained due to spatial variation using advanced statistical analysis methods without any additional cost. Three genotypes exhibited better yield advantage, higher plant biomass and overall plant aspect including drought tolerance. In addition, these genotypes were preferred by farmers in their overall agronomic desirability (drought tolerance, earliness, head exertion and compactness, grain size and shape and threshability. Also, the national variety releasing committed has evaluated the variety verification trial both on station and farmers' field condition in 2018/2019 and they decided the release of the candidate variety 14MWLSDT7114 (2005MI5060/E-36-1) for commercial production in dry lowland environment.

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For sorghum hybrid development, assessment of parental lines is a prerequisite. However, information on heterotic performance and combing ability of Ethiopian elite sorghum lines is inadequate. ANOVA revealed mean squares had signifying substantial amount of variability amongst genotypes for most traits. Males 72, 81 and 99 were the best performing parents for yield and related traits. Hybrids, 106 x 94, 106 x 90, 106 x 102, 107 x 99 and 107 x 105 were found maximum heterotic hybrids for yield as compare to check. The estimates of variance of combining ability revealed that σ 2 gca was found inferior to σ 2 sca for all traits except plant height and number of heads. The σ 2 gca/σ 2 sca ratio revealed preponderance of supremacy gene action for most traits. The degree of dominance was found greater than unity for entire traits except plant height. The estimations of parental GCA effects showed that female 106 and males 79, 96, 94 and 81 were good general combiners for yield and related traits. Based on perse performance, heterotic response, combining ability and nature of gene action for yield and related traits, female parent 106 and male parents 94, 102 and 90 were found most performed. Those parental lines were grouped into dualistic heterotic groups based on their SCA and GCA results.

Sorghum is one of the most widely cultivated cereal crops in Ethiopia which is grown for food and feed uses. It's far an indigenous crop that's grown in incredibly diverse environments of getting diverse water strain, soil fertility, and temperature situations. Trait of sorghum varieties tolerant to drought and producing desirable grain yield at the same time as addressing the biomass requirement is one of the techniques within the sorghum breeding program to the dry lowland surroundings so one can feed the growing population in Ethiopia. A total of 126 superior early maturing sorghum elite lines had been evaluated through along with recently released popular trendy check Melkam and Argiti to estimate the grain yield and stability of overall performance throughout the testing environments. Based on the overall performance of grain yield, flowering time, plant height, and the stability of grain yield genotype ETSC14501-2-2 and 14MWLSDT7196 become top ranked followed by genotype 14MWLSDT7176, 14MWLSDT7241 and 13MWF6#6037 which could be a capability candidate for production to the target environments. The varieties had better grain yield performance and stability across the environment, which may be used as capacity parental lines for genetic improvement in the sorghum improvement program. Finally based on the presented result on early maturing variety ETSC14501-2-2 with the pedigree of Redswazi/Meko-1 identified and registered for variety verification across locations on stations and on farms to confirm the stability and preference by farmers with their own farming practices.

Sorghum is a staple food crop in Ethiopia and its production is mainly constrained by drought, other environmental factors, and the use of low-yielding, local sorghum varieties. To improve sorghum productivity, it is crucial to provide farmers with high yielding, stable sorghum cultivars that are tolerant to drought and other constraints. The stable performance of sorghum varieties in a growing region is critical to obtain a high and stable yield. In the 2012-2014 crop year, 24 genotypes, including standard controls, were evaluated at the national variety trial stage over six main dry lowland sorghum growing sites and two years made 7 environments to evaluate their performance, stability and to quantify Genotype by Environment Interaction (GEI) across moisture stress sorghum growing areas of Ethiopia. Spatial modeling has been used to estimate predicted mean (BLUPs) results and Performance and estimation of environmental correlation, heritability, GEI, and other parameters using the ASReml3-R analysis package. The predicted mean yield of the test genotypes across the environment ranged from 3.45 to 1.56 t•ha −1 . Based on the result genotype G13, it could be further promoted because of its yield advantage and other important attributes over the standard checks, but it is the least stable.