Multi-environment trial and spatial analysis for yield performance of sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] hybrids in dry lowland sorghum growing areas of Ethiopia

Sorghum is one of the most widely preferred and cultivated crops in Ethiopia. It is grown for food and feed components. In the developed world, exploitation of heterosis in most crops (Maize, Sorghum, Rice, etc.) is high. There is a clear need to develop sorghum hybrids in Ethiopia to improve their livelihood by increasing sorghum production and productivity. One of the strategies for increasing sorghum yield is through the exploitation of heterosis because sorghum hybrids are high yielder than OPV lines. Properly selected sorghum hybrids can help growers to increase yield, use less water, reduce lodging losses, increase feed quality, and manage maturation time. In Ethiopia, the National Sorghum Research Program runs a multiple technology development work in Ethiopia with the collaboration of International and National Institutions and Universities. One of the oversea collaborative Universities is Purdue University and the Sorghum program received sorghum hybrids to evaluate their performance across sorghum growing dry lowland areas. A total of 35 sorghum hybrid genotypes were introduced and evaluated at six sorghum growing lowland areas of Ethiopia including two recently released hybrid check in 2014. Based on the experimental data submitted to national variety releasing committee, candidate 9187 has been approved for farmers and commercial seed producers in 2018; it is named ESH-5. This hybrid variety is released with a merit of seed color, over all agronomic performance, head shape and yield superior to the recently released hybrid check by 11% yield advantage. Key words: Hybrid, heritability, sorghum, stability.