1 Int. J. Sustain. Crop Prod. 4(4):01-04 (August 2009) STABILITY ANALYSIS FOR TUBER YIELD COMPONENTS IN POTATO A. HAYDAR 1 , M. A. ISLAM 1 , T. ARA 1 , E. H. KHOKAN 1 and M. M. HOSSAIN 1 1 Department of Botany, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh Accepted for publication on 15 July 2009 ABSTRACT Haydar, A., Islam, M.A., Ara, T., Khokan, E.H., and Hossain, M.M. 2009. Stability analysis for tuber yield components in potato. Int. J. Sustain. Crop Prod. 4(4):01-04. Thirty potato genotypes were evaluated for four successive years (environments) for their stability analysis using Eberhert and Russell’s model at Botanical Research Field, Rajshahi University, Rajshahi, Bangladesh during the rabi crop seasons of 2004-2008. Analysis of variance, mean, regression co-efficient (bi) and deviation from regression (s 2 di) of the individual genotypes were estimated to evaluate the stable performance of the genotypes. The mean squares due to genotypes, environments and genotype- environment interaction were significant for all the characters studied suggesting a lot of variability among the genotypes environments and the genotypes interacted significantly with environments. Among all the genotypes, Petronese and Calwhite showed stable performance for tuber number and tuber yield under all environments. The genotypes Yucon gold was highly responsive and suitable for favorable environments only. Keywords: Stability, Genotype, Potato and Interaction INTRODUCTION Potato (Solanum tuberosam L.) is one of the most important horticultural and economical food crop in Bangladesh as well as many countries of the world. In Bangladesh potato is still used as a major vegetable crop. In Bangladesh potato substantially supplements of food requirements of the country after two cereals, rice and wheat (Sarker and Mostafa, 2002). At present potato is the most important crop that grows well throughout the country occupying 3 rd position after rice and wheat. Potato ranks 1 st as vegetable in terms of area and production in Bangladesh. Yield in potato as in other crops, is a very complex character and is dependent on many other characters (Mondal, 2003). The environment has many influences over productivity of a potato genotype. A study of stability analysis is of much value in the selection of better genotypes. High yield stability usually refers to a genotypes ability to perform consistently, whether at high or low yield levels, across a wide range of environments (Annicchiarico, 2002). Genotypes are selected primarily on the basis of the mean performance across environments for that crop year, although those selected may not be the most stable (Yau and Hamblin, 1994). Yield stability targets for breeding programs can be defined from yields of trails through estimation of variance components for the target environments. One of the major stability measures is the static stability concept (Lin et al., 1986; Becker and Leon, 1988). This can be estimated by measuring (i) the environmental variance i.e. the variance of genotype yields recorded across test or selection environments, and (ii) the regression coefficient of genotype yield in individual environments as a function of the environment mean yield. When genotype environment interaction significant, stability parameters are estimated for selecting superior genotypes across a range of environment. The objective of this study was to investigate the stability of agronomic characters of thirty genotypes grown in four successive years using variance and regression analysis. MATERIALS AND METHODS The experiment was carried out four successive years in the botanical research field of Rajshahi University, Bangladesh during the year 2004-2008. Thirty potato genotypes viz. Petronese, Conestoga, Granulla, Raja, Calwhite, Hagrai, Japanese red, Atlas, TPS-573, Diamont, Banana, Russet burbank, Green mountain, Atlantic, Shilbilati, Cheroki, Lapakri, Blondy, Superior, Prelude, Fundy, Yucon gold, GMO, TPS-67, Elvera, Multa, Shepody, TPS-7, All blue and Monona were collected from Plant Breeding and Gene Engineering Lab, Dept. of Botany, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh and used as experimental materials. In each year the experiment was conducted in a randomized block design with three replications. In order to investigate the stability, following six yield related characters were evaluated viz. plant height (PH), number of leaves/plant (NLP), fresh weight/plant (FWP), number of tubers/plant (NTP), average tuber weight of plant (ATW) and tuber yield/plant (TYP). To select the desirable genotypes, the mean performance, regression co-efficient (bi) and deviation from regression (s 2 di) were calculated following Eberhart and Russells model (1966). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Analysis of variance for various yield related characters are presented in Table 1. Mean squares due to genotypes (G) and environments (E) were found significant for all the characters when tested against pooled error suggested that lot of variability among the genotypes and environments exits (Table 1). Int. J. Sustain. Crop Prod. 4(4):01-04 (August 2009) © 2006‐11 Green World Foundation (GWF)