Yield Advantage of Elite Cereal and Legume Genotypes in Varying Potential Agro-ecologies of Central Tanzania

Abstract

Ten elite genotypes in total (of groundnut, pigeon pea, sorghum and pearl millet) and four local checks (one for each crop) were used in the study to identify legume and cereal genotypes of higher productivity in the varying potential agro-ecologies. The experiments were established following an incomplete randomized block design with two farmers selected per sub agro-ecology as replications. Combined analysis of variance over locations was carried out for grain yield and yield components. The results showed significant differences among groundnut and pearl millet genotypes tested for grain yield while for pigeon pea and sorghum genotypes the differences were insignificant. Genotype ICGV-SM 05650 of groundnut had the highest grain yield of 2105.08 kg ha^-1, whereas the lowest grain yield of 1538.87 kg ha^-1 was recorded in ICGV-SM 02724 in the high potential agro-ecology. Pearl millet genotype IP 8774 ranked highest in terms of yield performance (1049.4 kg ha^-1) and the local check had the lowest yield of 388.9 kg ha^-1. Though non-significant differences among genotypes tested for grain yield were observed in pigeon pea and sorghum genotypes however, pigeon pea genotype ICEAP 00040 had a slightly higher grain yield of 779.17 kg ha^-1 and sorghum genotype GAMBELLA 1107 outperformed the other genotypes with grain yield of 1420.8 kg ha^-1. Genotypes ICGV-SM 05650, ICEAP 00040, GAMBELLA 1107 and IP8774 were therefore recommended for deployment in these varying potential agro-ecologies due to their superior performance in terms of grain yield.