Genotype by Environment Interaction and Grain Yield Stability of Food Barley (<i>Hordeum vulgare L.</i>) Genotypes in West Hararghe Zone, Eastern Ethiopia

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L) is one of most important and commonly produced crops in Ethiopia. The experiment was conducted with the objective to determine the effect of genotype by environment interaction (GEI) on grain yield and to asses yield stability of Food Barley genotypes for the target environments. Fourteen genotypes, including Walashe were evaluated for two consecutive years in 2022 and 2023 at Arba rakate, Mechara and Daro Gudo. The experiment was laid in RCBD with three replications. The result revealed that there was significant difference among genotypes for grain yield across the testing environments. The mean grain yield of the genotypes across the six environments were 3341.2 kg/ha which ranged from 2768.4 kg/ha (G10) to 4045.6 t/ha (G13). The analysis of variance for AMMI also revealed significant variation for genotypes, environment and genotypes by environment interaction. The main effects of environment (E), genotypes (G) and GE interaction were highly significant at P < 0.01. Environment had the largest effect, explaining 58.7% of the total variability, while Genotypes and GE interaction explained 6.5% and 12.1% of total sum of squares, respectively. The larger contribution of the environment indicated that environments were very diverse. The first and second principal component accounted for 78.66% and 12.84% of the genotype by environment interaction (G×E), respectively). Based on AMMI stability value (ASV), test G12, G13, G7 and G14 were the most stable ones. Genotype Selection Index (GSI) showed that in the present study the most stable and high yielding genotypes were G13, G7 and G14. Based on this analysis, test G13, G7 and G14 were the most stable ones with AMMI stability values (ASV) of 9.08, 24.754 and 19.59, respectively. In the present study, Genotype Selection Index (GSI) showed that the most stable and high yielding genotypes were G13, G7 and G14 whereas, G10, G2, G3, G1 and G9 were the least stable and low yielding genotypes. Therefore, G13 and G7 were identified as candidate genotypes to be verified for possible release.