Stability Parameters for Yield and its Components

Abstract

Nine varieties of rice were used in this study, eight introduced from Vietnam, 93 – 1,93–2, 93–3, Quannaty, Mu, T26, Goma61 and Amstad82, and the local one Anber33, to investigate the comparative genotype x environment interaction and to estimate broad sense heritability and stability parameters for: no. days to 50% flowering, plant height, no. grains per spike, no. spikes per m2, spike length, 1000 grain weight, biological yield, harvest index and grain yield, and estimates simple linear correlations among them. The varieties were grown through the season 2008 in eight environments (combinations between two locations, Al-Mishkhab and Al-Muthana, and four irrigation intervals, flooded, 2,4 and six days) using randomized complete block design with three replications. A combined analysis of variance results showed highly significant difference among varieties and environments, and highly significant genotype x environment interactions for all studied characters. Broad sense heritability was high for all characters and ranged from 86.695% for harvest index to 99.587% for spike length. Grain yield had positive significant correlations with no. grains per spike, no. spikes per m2, 1000 grain weight, biological yield and harvest index. The results of stability parameters showed that the introduced varieties Quannaty and Mu were stable and fit for different environment for larger number of studied characters, and the varieties 93 – 1, T26 and Goma61 showed high stability for grain yield of rice.