AMMI analysis of yields and oil content in some linseed (Linum usitatissimum L.) genotypes in south and central Ethiopia

Abstract

Linseed (Linum usitatissimum L.) is important to the Ethiopian farmers in terms of its various home uses generating potential in both domestic and foreign markets. One of the major linseed production constraints in the country is the lack of high yielding and high oil content varieties. This experiment was conducted at Hossaina, Kokate, Dida-Midore and Holeta to assess the genotype-by-environment interaction (GEI) among the varieties for yield and oil content. The experiment was carried out using nine released out and three pipeline varieties with a local cultivar. The analysis of variance of AMMI exhibited a very highly significant (P ≤ 0.001) variation due to varieties and locations for grain yield, oil content and oil yield, but GEI was significant for oil content and oil yield and not for grain yield indicating that the stability of the genotypes over the range of locations tested. The genotypes CI-1652, Tolle, Kassa-2, CI-1525, Jeldu, and Kulumsa-1 for oil content and the genotypes Kassa-2, Jeldu and CI-1525 for oil yield formed the first adaptive group with high mean and IPCA1 closer to zero IPCA1 indicating that they were the most stable and had wider adaptability across the studied environments. The AMMI selections for oil content and yield per environment included Kassa-2 in all the four locations; Jeldu in Holeta and Kokate; Kulumsa-1 in Dida-Midore, Hossaina and Kokate; CI-1525 in Holeta and Hossaina; Dibannee in Hossaina for both oil content and oil yield but in Kokate only for oil yield.