Multi-environment evaluation of foxtail millet advanced lines for forage yield stability

Abstract

Foxtail millet (Setaria italica L. P. Beauv.) is a very important crop in the arid and semi-arid areas. In the present study, five advanced lines and one commercial check (Bastan) were tested across12 (six locations and two years) environments. An attempt was made to identify superior line(s) with emphasis on high forage yield potential and yield stability over multi-environment trials using GGE biplot analysis. The study was conducted using a randomized complete block design with four replications. Combined analysis of variance for forage yield showed that the genotypes, environments, and the interaction effects were highly significant (P ? 0.01). The environment, genotype and interaction effects accounted for 76.38%, 6.97% and 8.92% of the total forage yield variation, respectively. GGE biplot analysis showed that G5 has both high forage yield and stability across the studied environments and E3 and E4 were high-yielding environments in this study. Which-won-where study partitioned the testing locations into two mega-environments with G5 and G3 as winning genotypes in the first and second mega-environment, respectively. According to discriminate ability and representativeness, the E4 and E12 environments were perfect environments. Overall, existence of extensive crossover interaction clearly suggested that efforts are necessary to identify location-specific genotypes over multi-environment trials for release of new varieties.