GRAIN YIELD AND AGRONOMIC PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF EARLY MATURING SORGHUM GENOTYPES IN NORTH WESTER

Sorghum is a key food crop in Ethiopia's Tigray area and an essential food security crop in Ethiopia. However, the crop's yield is low due to a number of issues, including drought, striga, a lack of better varieties, low adoption rate and intensity, and poor agronomic management. During the main cropping season of 2017 and 2018, a field experiment was done at Sheraro, Rama, and Maiayni areas (North Western and Central Tigray), Ethiopia, to evaluate and choose the best high yielder and early maturing sorghum genotype/s. In a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications, fourteen sorghum genotypes were sown, including one standard and one local check. For grain yield and other examined variables, the combined analysis of variance revealed a significant difference due to the main effects of Genotype (G), Environment (E), Year (Y), and the interaction effect of G X E at (p0.05). The genotype G24 (WSV387/76T1#23) produced the maximum grain yield of 3.31 t ha-1, followed by G86 (3.21 t ha-1), and these genotypes attained yield advantages of 46.4 percent and 20.5 percent over the standard and local checks, respectively. G82 (IESV92084/E36-1) had the lowest grain production of all the strains (1.55 t ha-1). However, G86 genotypes revealed the highest yield stability index and mean grain yield with over all phenotypic acceptability (regarding yield, earliness, seed colour and size, and uniformity) and were advanced to variety verification trial to be evaluated by NVRC in the 2019/2020 cropping season based on ASV and Genotype stability index (GSI) genotypes. Please see the link :- https://www.ikprress.org/index.php/JOGAE/article/view/4984