Determination of Stability and G × E Interaction of Legume and Cereal Genotypes in Different Agro-Ecologies of Central Tanzania

Abstract

Legumes and cereals are essential components of sustainable agricultural production systems and are vital in sustaining food, nutrition, income security as well as improving soil health status in the semi-arid tropics. Field experiments were conducted during the 2019-2020 cropping season in different sub agro-ecologies of central Tanzania to determine stability and genotype x environment interaction (GEI) of legume and cereal genotypes for grain yield in the different sub agro-ecologies. An incomplete randomized block design with farmers as replications was used at each sub agro-ecology. Grain yield data of the fourteen genotypes in total of the four crops (groundnut, pigeon pea, sorghum and pearl millet) was collected. Results from the experiments generally revealed that G x M x E interactions were insignificant in terms of grain yield for all the crop genotypes studied. Among the groundnut and pigeon pea genotypes, significant differences were observed across the sub-ecologies while significant genotypic effects were observed in both sorghum and pearl millet genotypes. Although early planting outperformed late planting for the crop genotypes tested in terms of grain yield, non-significant differences in planting dates were observed. Furthermore, crop genotypes in the high potential generally out performed those under the moderate and low potential sub-ecologies. The above findings revealed that genotypes ICGV-SM 05650, ICEAP 00040, GAMBELA 1107 and IP8774 with superior grain yield performance were more adapted thus, recommended for deployment in these sub agro-ecologies of central Tanzania