Abstract

Mulugeta Atnaf, Tizazu Degu, Netsanet Abera and Zeru Yimer

An experiment to study adaptability and stability of introduced kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus) cultivars for fiber yield was undertaken at different environments of Ethiopia in the 2011 main cropping season. Seven kenaf commercial cultivars introduced from Israeli and USA along with one local check were grown in randomized complete block design with four replicates. The combined analysis of variance over environments showed kenaf fiber yield was significantly affected by environments (E), genotypes (G) and genotype x environment (GE) interactions. The first two principal components (PC1 and PC2) of the GGE explained 88.3% of the sum of squares using environment standardized model. GG-2 from Israeli and the local check had the highest mean fiber yield in that order. However, the local check was relatively most unstable compared with the rest of the genotypes. GG-2 showed both highest kenaf fiber mean yield and stability performance and also was the winner in four of the five test environments. Hence, it could be considered as most adaptable and stable cultivar. Test environments, Pawe and Awassa were the most discriminating of the genotypes and representative of all other test environments.