EVALUATION OF GENOTYPES WITH ENVIRONMENTAL INTERACTIONS OF LABLAB (PURPUREUS L.) AND IT'S DRY MATTER YIELDS STABILITY IN THE MIDLAND OF GUJI ZONE, SOUTHERN OROMIA, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Animal feed is one of the main challenges livestock producers face due to inadequate nutrition, particularly during the dry season. This study aimed to identify the Lablab genotype's performance in different midlands areas of Guji zones. A 3mx2m plot was used to seed twelve Lablab purpureus genotypes obtained from the International Livestock Research Institute Gene Bank and a tick-registered variety from the Bako Agricultural Research Centre. During the main cropping rainy season in 2021-2022, three locations, Dufa, Gobicha, and Kiltu sorsa, Adola subsite, and on farms in two (2) consecutive years, respectively, were studied using randomized complete block designs (RCBD) with three replications. Information was gathered regarding the establishment, duration of various physiological stages, dry matter yield of fodder, chemical compositions, and additional relevant factors. AMMI and the SAS statistical analysis programmer, version (2002), were used to analyse variance in the gathered data. The list significant difference test was used to compare the means. The AMMI analysis of variance for forage dry matter yield showed substantial (P<0.01) variations in genotype and environment but not in the effects of the G x E interaction. The representative testing site and the testing conditions (Adola Woyu and Kiltu sorsa) were quite good at differentiating genotypes. The combined analysis of the data revealed non-significant (P>0.05) differences for plant height and thousand seed weight but significant (P ≤ 0.05) differences for days to flowering, days to maturity, number of branches, leaf to steam ratio, number of pods, and number of seeds across the tested environments. The results showed that, out of all the examined locations, G-11620 (15.43 t/ha) and G-14486 (11.12 t/ha) had the highest forage dry matter production. It was observed that the leaf-to-steam ratio was higher in both G-11486 and G-11620. All chemical compositions across the tested genotypes were found to be significantly different (p ≤ 0.05) among parameters, except DOMD and IVDMD, which did not show significant (p >0.05) variations among genotypes. The recorded CP content ranged from 21.15% for G-14486 to 23.50% for G-11620, with the lowest value coming from typical cheek Gabis at 10.8%. The highest and the lowest NDFs were recorded from G-11620 (11.2%) and Gabis (22.23%), respectively. Generally, the mean performance, yield and stability of the G-11620 and G-14486 were high and stable across the tested locations. Therefore, genotypes (G-14486 and G-11620) were promoted to variety verification for further evaluation and possible release.