Selecting Stable Chickpea Genotypes under Rainfed Cultivation using GGE Biplot Analysis

Background: Large environmental influence has been observed on grain yield in rainfed chickpea resulting in higher yield instability. Besides per se performance, stability of chickpea genotypes is a key trait for assured yield under rainfed cultivation. The present study evaluates chickpea advanced breeding lines for stability of grain yield and its components. Methods: A set of 27 chickpea ( Cicer arietinum L.) advanced breeding lines and three check varieties (JAKI 9218, JG 16, RSG 888) were evaluated for phenological and yield performance under three different environments under rainfed cultivation during 2019-20. The data was subjected to ANOVA and GGE Biplot analysis. Result: The first two principal components of the GGE Biplot explained about 80.13% of the total variation in multi-environment trial. The which won where/what biplot indicated that the genotype IPC17-78 performed well at Bhopal and Kanpur location followed by IPC15-12, IPC17-04 and IPC17-35. At Dharwad genotype IPC19-226 performed well followed by IPC19-220, IPC17-53, IPC19-222 and IPC18-63. Based on Mean vs Stability function of GGE Biplot analysis, chickpea genotype IPC17-369 was the most stable and high yielding genotype followed by IPC17-78 and IPC17-53. Genotypes IPC17-35 and IPC17-54 were more stable but had lesser yield potential. In the "Discrimitiveness vs representativeness" biplot, all the environments plotted at far distance from biplot origin indicating that they were all able to discriminate between genotypes; however, Kanpur and Bhopal were the most discriminating locations.