Study the Seed and Oil Yield Stability of Sunflower Hybrids across Environments

Aims: This study was conducted to investigate the nature of genotypes-environments interaction (GEI) and identify the most stable sunflower hybrids that can give high seed yield with high oil yield under a wide range of environmental conditions in Egypt.

Place and Duration of Study: Fifteen hybrids were evaluated across three years (2017 to 2019) and three locations (Giza, Ettay El-Barod and Shandaweel).

Study Design: The experiments were laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications.

Methodology: Analysis of variance, some stability methods as additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) and genotype main effects and genotype-by-environment interaction effects (GGE-biplot) were conducted. Results of stability indices were ranked as AMMI Stability Value (ASV), yield stability (YSI) and rank-sum (RSI) and heritability was estimated.

Results: Combined analysis revealed that GEI was highly significant, indicating the possibility of selection for stable ones. AMMI analysis confirmed that the seed yield performance of sunflower hybrids was largely influenced by the environment. On the contrary, environments recorded less impact on oil yield as compared to the effect of hybrids (genetics). Then, heritability estimate of oil yield trait (93.86%) was higher than the seed yield one (31.10%). Indices of YSI and RSI presented that hybrids (H15, H7 and H11) and (H7, H8 and H15) were the best stable promising ones in seed and oil yield, respectively. GGE-biplot analysis indicated that hybrids (H15, H7, H4 and H11) and (H7, H15, H8 and H15) were considered as the most ideal for seed and oil yield, respectively whereas Shandweel was the ideal environment for both.

Conclusion: Therefore, all analyses agreed on hybrids H15, H7 and H11 were considered as the most desirable and stable ones. These hybrids can be recommended for wider cultivation due to better seed and oil yield with stable performance across the test environments.