Identification of Climate-Smart Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Germplasm for Optimum Moisture Areas of Ethiopia

Abstract

Ethiopia's Bread Wheat Breeding Program conducts annual multi-environment yield trials to develop advanced wheat genotypes for Ethiopian wheat cultivation, ensuring a steady supply of new and improved varieties to meet production and marketing challenges. The objective of this research was to assess potential yield and the interactions between genotype and environment in wheat across multiple environments, as every cultivar has a distinct response to soil and climate. The BLUP analysis reveals that the 22AA and 22KU trials in 2022, along with 21KU trials in 2021 yielded high grain production, indicating optimal testing locations for distinguishing bread wheat genotypes and agroecologies. The study found that seven out of sixteen trials exhibited a higher genetic variance for yield, indicating high genotype discriminating power, with estimates ranging from 0.043 to 0.989 for genetic variance, 0.084 to 1.147 for error variance, and 72.7 to 96.4 for heritability. EBW202471 and EBW202473 are stable genotypes with good yield performance across correlated locations, with EBW202471 showing the highest yield (4.98 t/ha) and Deka showing a lower yield (4.07 t/ha). Three wheat genotypes, EBW202471, EBW202472, and EBW202473, were found to be moderately resistant to moderately susceptible to stem and yellow rust among 20 wheat genotypes. Finally, the two genotypes, EBW202471 and EBW202473, were advanced to National Performance Trials to evaluate their performance alongside top genotypes from regional federal research centers and to be released as new varieties.