Abstract

The study was conducted in northern and western parts of Ethiopia specifically at Sheraro, Humera and Miesso locations for consecutive years beginning from 2012 to 2014. The main objective of the study was to evaluate and identify better performance and stable pearl millet genotypes across different environments and years. Fifteen pearl millet genotypes were tested at different locations and promising genotypes could be identified. The experiment was conducted using randomized complete block design with three replications. Combined mean analysis was computed after using Anderson-Darling normality test and Levene homogeneity test. Genotype and Genotype by environment interaction (GGE) biplot analysis were computed to evaluate stability and adaptability of the grain yield of pearl millet genotypes. The analysis of ANOVA indicated that the mean grain yield ranged from 1687.28 kg ha-1 for G14 (ICMV 8400 white) to 2304.72 kg ha-1 for G2 (Sub-2). From the total pearl millet genotypes seven of the genotypes showed above the mean average yields. The highest (2542.27 kg ha-1) and the lowest (1593.42 kg ha-1) grain yield were attained at Miesso in 2013 and at Sheraro in 2014 respectively. GGE biplot analysis was also computed to identify the performance and stability of pearl millet genotypes and hence a total of 72.05% variation was showed for the tested pearl millet genotypes at different environments. The study result revealed that the most responsive of corner genotypes were genotype three, genotype four, genotype five, genotype ten and genotype fourteen. At the same time genotype three, genotype six, genotype eight, genotype ten and genotype fourteen with the longest projection from the AEC x-axis were highly unstable. In contrast, genotype four, genotype two, genotype eleven and some other invisible genotypes were highly stable. In terms of stability and performance genotype four (Sub-2) was the highest followed by genotype one (Kolla-1). Regarding the GGE biplot analysis, it was the most powerful method to analyze, visualize and interpret the genotype and environment interaction. It was also a convenient procedure to genotypes stability studies and environments that has to be applied in plant breeding program. At the end, the top performed pearl millet technology should be more popularized and seed disseminated to farmers to grow at wider acreages to ascertain food security and overall livelihood improvement.

Keywords: GGE biplot; Genotype; Grain yield; Stability