Published Paper Details:

Forty-nine bread wheat genotypes were studied under rainfed conditions at three locations namely, Chena, Masha and Shey Bench, each of varied agroecologies in southwestern Ethiopia during 2017 and 2018 with the objective of estimating their genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance using 7x7 simple lattice design. Data were collected for 12 agronomic characters. The analyses of variance showed highly significant differences (p<0.01) among wheat genotypes for all traits studied in all the locations except for the number of effective tillers per plant at Chena and biomass yield at Masha wherein genotypes had significant differences only at p<0.05 level and the number of spikelets per spike at Shey Bench wherein genotypes had expressed a non-significant difference. The phenotypic coefficients of variation (PCV) were relatively greater than those of genotypic coefficients of variation (GCV) for most of the characters studied at all the three locations; however, the magnitudes of the differences were relatively high for the number of tillers, number of kernels per spike, biomass yield and grain yield. High heritability coupled with moderate genetic advance (as percent of mean) were observed for days to heading, days to maturity, spike length and grain filling period at all locations. Therefore, any improvement of these characters would result in a substantial increment in grain yield in regions of southwestern Ethiopia which are otherwise rich in natural resources but poor in their efficient utilization.