Evaluation of durum wheat genotypes performance across locations over years under Ethiopian condition

Ethiopia is the major wheat producer in sub-Saharan African countries and durum wheat is one of the two common wheat species. In Ethiopia, durum wheat production is declining due to different problem such as Lack of widely adaptable, stable, and durable resistant genotypes, Hence, evaluation of genotypes in multi-locations over several cropping season is required. Therefore, the objective of this study was to develop Durum Wheat genotypes that are high yielding, stable, adaptable across years and locations with acceptable industrial quality. 37 genotypes were tested with the two checks at three locations for two cropping seasons with row-column design in two replications. Data were conducted for all traits of interest. The data have been checked for the required assumptions of normality; homogeneity of variance and ANOVA, mean separation, GXE and AMMI analysis have been performed using R-software using different packages. The combined ANOVA shown significant variation among testing environments for all traits of interest (P < 0.01, P < 0.05) except grain filling period. Trait correlation analysis showed positive relationship of grain yield with thousand kernel weight and days to maturity with days to heading at all locations. Among the tested durum wheat genotypes, six genotypes, namely, G29, G37, G31, G19, G15 and G24 were found to be the top high yielding genotypes across all locations as the mean grain yield of tested genotypes showed. The genotypes G29 and G1 were identified as high yielding and stable across all six environments. Therefore, these lines can be included in the national testing program, to be released as a variety and recommending as good parent for crossing.