Abstract
Development of high yielding and stable cultivars of various legume crops across different environments is very important for their adoption by farmers. In addition, climate change sets new challenges to major crop species and especially to grain legumes such as faba bean (Vicia faba L.) for adaptation to stressful environments. The present study focused on evaluating faba bean genotypes developed for yield and stability across different environments. The study was conducted in three areas of Greece (South, Central, and North) for two consecutive growing seasons (2018–2019 and 2019–2020). Biomass yield, seed yield, and yield components were studied together with plant height, earliness, and water use efficiency. Genotype, environment, and their interaction affected most of the studied characteristics. The environment was the major source of variation for most of the characteristics, as it explained 81–93% of total variation, and only in the thousand seed weight the variation was 49% for the environment and 40% for the genotype. Genotype had a much smaller effect on the remaining characteristics (1.2–3.9%), and the interaction between environment x genotype accounted for up to 0.5–17% of the variation. GGE-biplot analysis for high yield and stability across different environments revealed three genotypic types: genotypes well adapted either for biomass or seed yield and genotypes with high adaptation capacity for both traits under typical Mediterranean conditions. These results indicated that screening faba bean genotypes under different environmental field conditions is essential to identify adaptable cultivars to be cultivated for biomass and/or seed yield or to be used in breeding programs.
Highlights
Weather data were obtained from meteorological stations located within 1 km of the trial sites, recorded daily, and are reported as mean monthly data for the period in which the study was conducted (Figure 1, Tables 2 and 3)
Above-normal rainfall occurred in Spata, especially in winter and mid-spring (436 mm in total, averaged across growing seasons) compared to the long-term average (239 mm)
Rainfall amounts and effective rainfall events (>5 mm) in Spata and Larissa were higher across late autumn and winter than in spring and early summer, whereas in Thessaloniki, the opposite occurred (Figure 1, Tables 2 and 3)
Summary
Sustainable agriculture is threatened by climate change, as a reduction in crop production is expected in most regions [1]. The impact of climate change on agriculture can be reduced by modifying farming practices, and complementary to this, by using appropriate crops and varieties adapted to new climatic conditions. In this regard, modern breeding must fulfill several objectives: harmonize agricultural production and environment; ensure food and seed abundance, security and quality; and secure climate robustness [3]. Breeding adaptive traits is required to increase the resilience to broad-spectrum stresses and maintain productivity, food security, and agricultural sustainability.
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