Stability of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) progenies on yield and yield Components across environments using AMMI analysis

Abstract

Southern Thailand is annually affected by climate change, which impacts on yield performance of oil palm. Therefore, effect of climate change on adaptability, cultivation and yield of oil palm in various planting areas was investigated. This research aimed to evaluate the adaptability of six oil palm progenies (cross numbers 110, 118, 119, 130, 132 and 137) at 5 year-old-plants grown in three environmental areas of southern Thailand: Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phatthalung and Songkhla provinces. The experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design with five replications per treatment (1 tree/replicate) in each environment during 2013-2014. The additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) model was used to analyze the stability of yield and yield components. The results showed that the variances attributed to environment (E), genotype (G) and their interactions (G x E) were highly significant. The yield of each progeny depended on growth location. The AMMI biplot analysis showed that progeny 110 was the most stable genotype based on yield and yield components in all the environments. The highest yield of fresh fruit bunches in Phatthalung, Songkhla and Nakhon Si Thammarat provinces were obtained in progeny 130 (403.16 kg/palm/year), progenies 132 and 137 (303.20 and 297.96 kg/palm/year), and progeny 119 (283.52 kg/palm/year), respectively. This indicates that the suitability of an oil palm progeny in general depends on the specific environment for planting.