AMMI approach for grain yield and stability of maize (Zea mays L.)

Ninety one hybrids developed by diallel mating involving 14 inbreds were used to estimate stability for four yield related traits under moisture in rainfed, induced and across the environments.The AMMI model which had both additive and multiplicative effects had been applied for the data.The analysis of variance for stability revealed that for all the characters,the mean squares were significant for genotypes, environments,G x E interactions,PCA I, PCA II and PCA III. Among the genotypes, twenty nine genotypes recorded significantly superior mean performance for grain yield per plant in over all environments. Among the high mean performing genotypes, four genotypes viz., P1 x P7, P1 x P10, P2 x P6 and P8 x P11 recorded low interaction, twenty four genotypes with positive type of interaction and one genotype P7 x P13 with negative type of interaction with environment were noticed. Among the environments, L4 recorded low interaction. The environments L2 and L4 recorded positive type of interaction, while L1 and L3 recorded negative type of interaction. Stability analysis for grain yield indicated that hybrids viz., P1x P7, P1 x P10,P2 x P6 and P8 x P11 were showed stable in performance over the environments. The hybrid P1 x P7 was also found to be stable for hundred grain weight apart from grain yield per plant. The hybrids though exhibited high mean performance, depicting differential performance in rainfed, induced and overall environments under moisture conditions and thus were unstable.