Yield stability analysis in multi-environment trials of hybrid rice (Oryza sativa L.) in Northern India using gge biplot analysis

This study was carried out to evaluate the performance of rice cultivars for grain yield stability performance analysis and wide adaptation by GGE biplot method. An experiment was conducted to evaluate 8 rice (Oryza sativa L.) hybrids, 2 check varieties for their stability at 6 different locations, viz Patna, Purnia, Lucknow, Gosaiganj, Barabanki and Prayagraj during rainy 2018 season representing different agroclimatic zones of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. GGE biplot methodology was utilised to find out the grain yield performance and stability of rice cultivars examined over six environments. GGE biplot analysis considers both genotype (G) and GE interaction effects and graphically displays Genotype Environment interaction in a two-way table. GGE biplot is an effective method based on principal component analysis (PCA) to fully explore multi environment data. The significant Genotype by Environment interaction effects for yield infers that genotypes reaction was different over different environments, indicating that the genotype selection must be specific to the growing conditions. Based on the analyses, genotypes H2, H3 and H5 were high yielding and highly stable genotypes. Hybrid H6 at Environment 4 and hybrid H4 at Environment 3 performed well. Environments E1, E2, E5 and E6 were suitable evaluating environments for this set of rice cultivars.