Unveilling heat-resilient chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) lines under two mega chickpea growing regions in India using GGE biplot analysis

In the face of escalating uncertainties due to global climate change-induced heat stress, ensuring the stability of chickpea yields iscrucial for global food security. To select stable and heat stress-tolerant genotypes, 25 advanced chickpea breeding lines, includingthree checks, were evaluated for various phenological, yield, and yield-related traits under diverse ecological field conditions. Undernormal sown conditions, IPC2021-71 (G13), ICC92944 (G21), and IPC2019-170 (G14) showed greater stability and desirability for yield.Among these, IPC2021-71 outperformed in Kanpur, Punjab, and Bhopal based on the “which won where” criterion. Punjab and Bhopalemerged as the most informative locations based on the GGE biplot “discrimination-and-representativeness” analysis. Under heatstress conditions, stability analysis revealed that IPC2021-165 (G6), IPC2015-52 (G9), IPC2011-61 (G10), and ICC92944 (G21) were stableperformers. Additionally, the “which won where” criterion highlighted G6 as the best performer in Punjab and New Delhi under heatstress conditions. Punjab and Delhi were identified as the most representative locations for heat stress.