Assessment of CMS based Flue Cured Virginia tobacco (Nicoitiana tobaccum L.) hybrids for stability of marketable yield traits in light soils of Karnataka

Flue-cured Virginia (FCV) tobacco (Nicoitiana tobaccum L.) cultivation in the southern transition zone of Karnataka light soils is frequently prone to drastic seasonal variations of climatic factors like rainfall, temperature and sunshine hours. Hence, it is essential to evaluate and identify the cultivars with stable and high mean performance across seasons/environments. In the present study, eight FCV tobacco CMS hybrids and three standard checks were evaluated for yield and yield-related parameters in RCBD with three replications over three crop seasons. AMMI model and GGE biplot were used to detect and characterize genotypic × environmental interaction (GEI) and to identify stable hybrids across the environments. Combined analysis of variance revealed that genotypes and environments differed significantly and GE interaction was significant for cured and bright leaf yield. AMMI II model family was adequate to explain the detected variation attributable to GEI. Two hybrids CMS 7 × A4 and CMS 10 × A4 were found to be stable with high mean performance for marketable yield traits across the seasons based on both stability parameters as well as GGE biplot analysis. Hybrid CMS 7 × A4 with YREM values near unity is likely to maintain its high leaf yield potential across environments even in the presence of cross-over GEI.