Genotype, Environment Interaction and Yield Stability Estimates of Some Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) Traits in Sudan

Abstract

This research work was carried out during two seasons of 2016 and 2017 at four locations. Two of them are under irrigation and two under rain-fed conditions. The irrigated sites were Wad Medani and Suki, while the rain-fed sites were Gedarf and Damazin. The experiments at the four locations were testing7 sorghum genotypes against three checks (Tabat, Wad-Ahmed and HD-2) for their grain yield, yield stability and some important agronomic characters. The design at each site and season was a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with four replicates. Sowing was in the first week of July under irrigation and in the first to the third week of July under rainfed conditions depending on the rainfall. All other recommended cultural practices suitable to irrigation and rain fed conditions were adopted as recommended. Combined analysis showed that there were significant differences among tested genotypes. The results of AMMI analysis of variance showed that, the mean squares of genotypes, environments and genotypes  environments interaction were highly significant (p<0.01) for grain yield. Genotype W638 recorded the highest grain yield (3.6 t/ha) followed by genotype Mena (3.2 t/ha) while the three checks HD-2, Tabat and W.Ahmed showed a mean grain yield of 2.9, 2.8, and 3.1 t/ha respectively. From these results, it was found that, the genotypes W638 and Mena out yielded all the checks and had a mean grain yield greater than the general mean of the irrigated environments (2.9 t/ha),while Maroa scored a grain yield comparable to Wad Ahmed (2.0 t/ha), but greater than Tabat (1.7 t/ha) and HD-2 (1.3 t/ha) and above the general mean of the rain fed environments (1.7 t/ha) .These results indicated that, genotypes W638 and Mena were stable and adaptable under irrigated conditions, while genotype Maroa was considered as stable and adaptable under rain fed conditions.