Genotype and environment interaction effect on yield of cotton under naturally salt stress condition

Thirteen genotypes of cotton developed through hybridization and mutation breeding techniques were evaluated during two consecutives years 2002-03-04 on eight locations covering most of the area of Punjab province including Faisalabad, Toba Tek Singh and Jhang. The eight sets of experiments were conducted in the naturally highly saline sodic soils, EC ranges from 7.8-36.1 d/Sm, pH=8.1-8.8, SAR=10.1-40.5, Saturation percentage 31.3-40.8 and texture Sandy Clay loam and Clay loam. The seed yield data was collected at maturity and stability parameters were computed to know genotypic environment interaction and varietals performance. The combined analysis of variance showed highly significant variance in case of varieties, locations and varieties x environment (Lin) also showed highly significant differences. It means that genotypes exhibited different behavior in different locations/environments which is due to their different genetic make up. The behavior may be cross over (in which significant change in ranking order occurs from one environment to another) or cross over nature (in which case the ranking of genotypes remains constant across environments and the interaction is significant because of change in the magnitude of response) depending upon the ranking order of genotypes performance under different environments. In our study only S-12 behavior was of almost non cross over nature, while others had cross over type of interaction. Based on over all seed yield cotton variety NIAB999 and CIM-707 produced highest seed yield cotton (3.2 t/ha, 3.17t/ha). The lowest seed yield cotton was noted in S-12 (1.86 t/ha). All the three parameters of stability i.e. overall mean seed yield cotton, regression coefficient and standard deviation to regression provided clear evidence that variety NIAB-999 and CIM-707 produced maximum stable yield compared to S-12.