Identification of Stable Lentil Genotypes Using AMMI Analysis for the Highlands of Bale, Southeastern Ethiopia

Abstract

Genotype x environment interaction was evaluated under six environments during 2017 to 2019 cropping season in the highlands of bale, Southeastern Ethiopia for grain yield of fifteen promising lentil genotypes promoted from the previous trials. Randomized Complete Block Design with four replications was used. The ANOVA revealed significant variation of grain yield for genotypes, environments, and genotypes by environment interaction. The explained percentage of grain yield by the environment, genotype, and genotype-environment interaction was 47.64, 25.47, and 26.89 respectively. In Additive Main Effect and Multiplicative Interaction (AMMI) analysis, the first two Principal components revealed more than 73% of the variability for the yield which indicates that G and GE together accounted for more than 25 percent of the total variability. The results finally indicated that AMMI stability value, GSI, and AMMI biplot are informative methods to explore stability and their by in subsequent variety recommendations. Based on AMMI Stability Value (ASV), G13, G5, G12, G1, and G15 showed the least ASV and were found to be more stable whereas G10, G7 G9 G8, and G14 have the second lower ASV and showed moderate stability. Based on Genotypes Selection Index (GSI), G5, G13, and G15 showed the lowest GSI whereas G10, G1, G4, G11, and G15 showed the second-lowest GSI. However, G4 and G10 gave grain yield higher than the checks, with moderate stability. Therefore, these two genotypes were identified as candidate genotypes to be verified for possible releases for the highlands of Bale, Southeastern Ethiopia, and similar agro-ecologies.