Identification of Adaptable Improved Bread Wheat (Triticum Aestivum L.) Genotypes in North Western Ethiopia

The experiment was conducted at experimental sites of Adet Agricultural Research Center namely Finoteselam, Adet, Simada, Injibara and Debretabor in 2014 cropping season under rain fed condition in North Western Ethiopia. In Ethiopia, although there are recently released and better performing bread wheat varieties, Western Amhara Region farmers grow relatively older varieties. Therefore genotype by environment interaction study is the substantial way to evaluate the performance of genotypes across environments. The objectives of the experiment were to evaluate the extent of genotype by environment interaction in grain yield; to examine adaptability and yield stability, and to differentiate the yield advantage of improved bread wheat genotypes over the standard check and local genotypes at five environments. Twelve bread wheat genotypes were used as experimental treatments. The genotypes were laid out in randomized complete block design with three replications per site. The AMMI and GGE biplot analysis of variance showed significant differences among genotypes across environments (P≤ 0.05). Even if G5, G9, G2, G4 and G11 showed higher mean grain yield than G7 (standard check) and G12 (local check), based on AMMI and GGE biplot analysis G9, G2, G4 and G11 were wide adapted genotypes across the test environments. Among these widely adapted genotypes G4 and G11 were relatively stable. In case of grain yield stability coefficient analysis G4 was highest performed genotype while G11 was higher static stable genotype all over the test environments. Therefore uses of different statistical analysis techniques are vital to overcome wrong conclusions of the studies. Promising genotypes like Gambo(G4), Ogolcho (G2) and Tsehay (G9) could be used as alternative varieties at test environments. Shorima (G11) in all environments except Finoteselam, and Tay (G7) in all environments except Simada could be recommended for production where as Kubsa(G12), Hidase(G1), Huluka(G3) and Gassay(G6) should not be used for production over the tested environments. However, it's better to repeat the experiment to know the effect of seasonal variation on yield stability of promising genotypes. Keywords: Adaptability, AMMI, GEI, GGE, Yield stability