Abstract
Yams are cultivated in diverse agroecologies and there is evidence of strong genotype and environment interaction. This has necessitated the evaluation of new yam genotypes in multi-locational trials. Five new white yam genotypes were evaluated in different locations of major yam producing areas; Umudike, Nsukka, Ubiaja, Abuja and Katsina-Ala, to test the performance and stability of these genotypes across the environments using GGE bi-plot software. The GGE bi-plot generated several graphic bi-plots which showed Umudike, Nsukka, Ubiaja and Katsina-Ala as belonging to one mega – environment while Abuja and Ubiaja belong to another. The GGE bi-plot also showed the discriminating and non-discriminating environments. Katsina-Ala was the most discriminating environment while Nsukka was the least. A test environment that lacks discriminating ability lacks the capacity to provide information about the genotype being used. Such environment lacks usefulness and should be discarded as a test environment. Katsina-Ala, with the longest vector is the most discriminating. This is followed by Ubiaja, Umudike and Abuja in that order. Nsukka is the least discriminating. KEYWORDS : Yams, multi-environment trial. GGE biplot, mega-enviroments.
Highlights
The yams are important food crop in Nigeria supplying many with cheap caloric-energy food form
The white yam is cultivated across diverse ecologies
Five white yam hybrid genotypes, DRN100/1/1, DRN150/2/001, DRN200/4/2, DRN95/79/2 and DRNM2 /50/5 were used in the trial
Summary
The yams are important food crop in Nigeria supplying many with cheap caloric-energy food form. The white yam is cultivated across diverse ecologies. Studies by Egesi and Asiedu, (2002) and Nwachukwu et al (2006) have shown the existence of strong genotype by environment interaction (GEI) in the yams.
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