Stability analysis for grain yield and yield components in chick pea ( C icer arietinum l

Research Article Stability analysis for grain yield and yield components in chick pea (Cicer arietinum l.) Abstract: Twenty one advanced breeding lines selected from All India Coordinated trials and one local popular variety " annegiri' were studied over three years to identify high yielding stable genotypes. Genotype , environment and G x E interaction variance found to be significant. Genotypic variance over environments was significant for grain yield , pods/plant and 100 seed weight. Both linear and non linear components were found to be important for the traits studied. Significant non linear component for grain yield indicated the predictability of the trait. Of all the genotypes C-506 and C-527 were found to be stable. Introduction Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is an important pulse crop in India and well adapted to drought prone semi arid tropical regions. In Andhra Pradesh it is cultivated in an area of 4 lakh ha. Moisture limitation is the critical factor due to temperature fluctuations during crop growth which results in forced maturity and poor yields/low productivity. Hence, genotypes overcoming moisture stress and having high adaptation to temperature fluctuations were the objectives. In the present study about 21 advanced breeding lines selected from coordinated trials and one locally popular variety Annegiri were studied during rabi 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09 to identify high yielding stable genotypes of chickpea.