Repeatability of different stability parameters for grain yield in chickpea

Abstract

AbstractThe presence of genotype × environment (GE) interactions in plant breeding experiments has led to the development of several stability parameters in the past few decades. The present study investigated the repeatability of these parameters for 16 chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) genotypes by correlating their estimates obtained from extreme subsets of environments within a year and also over years. Based on the estimates of response and stability parameters within each trial, the ranking of genotypes in the low‐yielding subset differed from that in the high‐yielding subset. This indicates poor repeatability for response and stability parameters over the extreme environmental subsets. The estimates of mean yield and stability parameters represented by ecovalence, W2i, were consistent over years, whereas those of response parameters (bi, and S2i) showed poor repeatability. Our results suggest that single‐year results for yield and stability can be used effectively for selecting cultivars with stable grain yield if tested in a wider range of environments.