Abstract:
An experiment was conducted to study yield stability of grain sorghum genotypes obtained by crossing the Striga hermonthica resistant genotypes IS9830, 555, SAR33, Framida, N13, ICSV006, ICSV007, PQ-34 Brhan and SRN39 and its derivatives P401, P402 and P405 as donors with the improved, elite Sudanese sorghum cultivars, Wad Ahmed (WA), Tabat (TA), Butana (BU) and Arfagadamek-8 (AG-8) as recurrent parents. The experiment was undertaken in two consecutive seasons (2016/17 and 2017/18) at three sites constituting six environments representing the irrigated and rain-fed sectors in the Sudan. The experiment, set in a randomized complete block design with four replicates, was laid in S. hermonthica sick plots. Data analyses, using GenStat software and combined analysis of variance showed highly significant differences (P≤0.01) among environments, genotypes and their interactions for grain yield. Twenty seven crosses, showing grain yield (20.4-72.4%) exceed the grand mean (898.1 kg ha-1) and 218.5-1475% higher than the maternal parents across the environments. Based on Additive Main Effect and Multiplicative Interaction (AMMI) analysis the crosses Framida x AG-8, PQ-34 x BU, ICSV006 x BU, ICSV007 x BU, SAR33 x BU, SAR33 x TA, P402 x TA, PQ-34 x WA, P405 x WA, P401 x WA, Framida x WA, SAR33 x WA and Brhan x WA were identified as the most stable, endowed with Striga resistant and/or tolerance and high grain yield (1139-1548 kg ha-1). It is recommended that these crosses be examined further for grain and nutrimental qualities, resistance mechanisms and potentials for deployment as components of S. hermonthica integrated management strategies and/or sources for resistance and/or tolerance.
