Stability and Performance Assessment in 18 Short-Duration Rice Genotypes under Rain Fed Lowland Production Conditions of Ethiopia

In order to identify high yielding and stable short-duration lowland rice genotypes, field experiment was conducted with 18 rice genotypes for three consecutive years (2013-2015) at five locations in a randomized complete block design of three replications. Combined analysis of variance showed highly significant differences for the genotype and environments. The genotype by environment interaction (GEI) was also highly significant indicating differential response of genotypes to environments. The partitioning of total sum of squares exhibited that the GEI effect was a predominant source of variation (34.44%), followed by the environment and genotype effects of 24.3% and 19.04%, respectively. The GEI effect was nearly two times higher than that of the genotype effect, suggesting the presence of different environment groups. In the AMMI analysis, the first six interaction principal component axes (IPCA1 to IPCA6) were highly significant and together explained 92.18% of interaction sum of squares. AMMI stability value (ASV) discriminated genotypes G17, G16 and G8 as the stable genotypes. But, based on the yield stability index (YSI), the most stable genotypes with high grain yield were genotypes G16 and G11. AMMI1 and GGE biplots also recommended G16 and G11as stable and high yielding genotypes, whereas G2 as unstable but high yielding. Thus, genotypes G16 and G11could be released for wider adaptation while genotype G2 for specific adaptation. Keywords : Lowland rice, AMMI, GGE, AMMI stability value, yield stability index. DOI: 10.7176/JEES/11-7-02 Publication date: July 31 st 2021