Yield Performance and Stability Analysis of Some Fonio (Digitaria exilis) lines in Nigeria

Abstract

The experiment to identify some fonio pure lines that are of superior agronomic traits, expressing high yield, stable and well adapted across some ecologies in Nigeria was under taken for D. exilis species. The Twelve (12) pure lines and a local check were evaluated in Nine (9) locations for two years. Combined Analysis and Stability Models were employed. The genotype EXPL03-10-01 had the tallest plants in the population, recorded the highest yield of 810.30kg/ha at Ryom and an overall combined yield of 696.09kg/ha. Finlay-Wilkinson stability model identified the genotype EXPL03-10-01 in the presence of changes in environmental quality, genotype x environment interaction (GEI) shows 30% higher than 1 in 2019 and 32% less than 1 in 2020 for slopes value having significant t-values in both years. GGE biplot analysis of grain yield indicated that, PC1 and PC2 explained a total of 66.3% and 15% of GGE sum of observed variations respectively. AMMI model deployed revealed that greater portion of total variability in the grain yield of the Fonio lines was contributed by the environments. G1 (EXPL03-10-01) was not only an ideal genotype in majority of the tested environments but was also found to be more stable than other genotypes according to GGE Biplot.