Genotype X Environment Interaction and Stability Analysis for Seed Yield in Desi Chickpea (cicer Arietinum L.) under Irrigated Condition

Background: Chickpea is mainly grown on marginal lands and encounter the problem of erratic rainfall that causes lack of water availability especially at terminal growth stages. Exploration of yield stability and defining the adaptation domains of advance genotypes in different ecosystem is highly imperative for crop genetic improvement programs. Development of variety with high yield potential and stable under irrigated condition is one of the major objectives of chickpea improvement programme, which can be achieved by improving selection efficiency with estimating stability parameters. Ten chickpea genotypes as advance breeding lines and popular varieties were evaluated to assess seed yield stability under irrigated condition during rabi 2021-22. Methods: Experiments were conducted in randomized block design with three replications at five different locations of Karnataka i.e. Bidar, Kalaburagi, Bheemarayanagudi, Raichur and Hagari. The interaction analysis (AMMI ANOVA) indicates large variations for seed yield due to highly significant (p less than 0.01) environment (65.42%) and significant (p less than 0.05) genotype (10.03%), thus the genotypes were diverse with large sum of squares for seed yield and environment. Result: The differential response of chickpea genotypes for seed yield across the environments was observed. IPCA1 and IPCA2 together captured 12.97 per cent of the interaction mean squares RG-2016-134 and KCD-2019-05 showed higher mean yields and adaptable to favourable environments. Based on AMMI bi-plot analysis, genotypes (KCD-2019-05 and Super Annigeri-1) were stable and (DC-17-1111 and RG-2016-134) were unstable. Similarly, best performer genotypes and three mega environments were noticed through the analysis. Three environments i.e., (Bidar, Kalaburagi and Raichur) were found with most selective for seed yield estimation. The genotypes (RGV-203, KCD-2019-02 and Super Annigeri-1) were the best among all the ten tested genotypes in terms of seed yield stability.