Evaluation and Stability Analysis of Early Maturing Soybean (Glycine Max L.) Genotypes in Lowland Agro Ecologies of Ethiopia

: Soybean is becoming the most important oil crops in Ethiopia. The national soybean breeding program is working to develop high-yielding, adaptable and stable varieties to increase production and productivity in the country. Breeding for early-maturing varieites is currently given due emphasis to overcome soybean production drawbacks in moisture defecit areas. Hence, performance evaluation of early maturing soybean genotypes across representative environments is essential to examine genotype × environment (GxE) interactions and identify the most stable and performed genotype. The trial was conducted using 10 soybean genotypes including checks in RCB design with four replications. The materials were evaluated over eight locations and G x E interaction was assessed using GGE-biplot analysis to identify stable genotype across testing environments. Data on phenological, agro-morphological and reaction to important diseases were collected for the crop. The combined analysis of variances showed significant to highly significant (P ˂ 0.01) difference among genotypes, environments and G x E interactions for most of the studied traits. GGE-biplot models showed that the eight environments used for the study belonged to four mega-environments. According to the GGE results, G3 (JM-HAR/G99-15-SD-2), and G7 (JM-HAR/PR142-15-SB) were identified as ideal genotypes in terms of higher-yielding ability and stability, and hence thesegenotypes are recommended for mega environment production in the country.