Grain Yield Stability of Pigeonpea Genotypes (Cajanus cajan L.) Across Environments

Pigeonpea is a protein-rich vegetarian food crop predominantly cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide. It stands as the second-largest grain legume in India. Developing adaptable pigeonpea cultivars with stable yields throughout various environmental circumstances has been the primary goal of crop development efforts because of seasonal fluctuations and unpredictable rainfall patterns.

To ascertain the grain yield performance of thirty pigeonpea genotypes, research was executed across three consecutive summer seasons in 2019, 2020 and 2021 at the Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, located in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India. The experimental setup employed a randomized block design replicated twice to estimate pigeonpea genotype’s yield stability, utilizing AMMI and GGE models.

The AMMI (Additive Main effects and Multiplicative Interactions) analysis showed genotype and environmental interactions had been primary factors influencing pigeonpea genotype’s grain yield performance. The initial 2 principal component axes (IPCA I and IPCA II) exhibited statistical significance, collectively explaining the total degrees of freedom associated with the interaction component. Genotype G30 was the best performer in the E3 environment, while G25, G6 and G22 were top performing pigeonpea genotypes in E1 environment. The environments E1 and E2 were closely related. Among the pigeonpea genotypes tested in this investigation, G25 and G6 were higher yielders with greater yield stability and can be recommended for cultivation in all three seasons. In contrast, G30 and G22 yielded higher but had unstable yield performance. Genotypes G16, G17, G12 and G15 showed greater stability but were poor yielders.