Stability of yield and yield component characters in chickpea

Sixty six genotypes of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) were evaluated in nine microenvironments for stability of nine characters and for correlations of yield with component characters using joint regression and stability analyses. Independence of stability of yield vs yield contributing characters was tested by the χ²-test. Variations due to genotypes, environments and genotype x environment interactions were highly significant for all characters. Forty eight genotypes were stable for plant height, 37 for days to flowering, 56 for days to maturity, 47 for primary branches/plant, 53 for secondary branches/plant, 46 for pods/plant, 38 for 100-grain weight, 54 for harvest index and 52 for yield/plant. Grain yield/plant had significant positive correlation with primary branches/plant and pods/plant, and its stability was dependent on stability of primary branches/plant and pods/plant, respectively. Likewise, grain yield had nonsignificant correlation with days to flowering, days to maturity, and 100-grain weight, and stability of grain yield was independent of stability of each of these three characters. Plant height had nonsignificant correlation with yield but its stability was not independent of stability of yield. Secondary branches and harvest index had significant correlation with yield but stability of each of these two characters had independent relationship with stability of yield. The noncoinddence between significance of r and χ² in case of plant height, secondary branches and harvest index were attributed to their low percentage of linear component of G x E, i.e. being nonpredictive in nature.