Sunflower mega-environments in Serbia revealed by GGE biplot analysis

Sunflower mega-environment analysis was conducted for the grain yield data of 20 hybrids and 19 test locations during 2006, and 20 hybrids and 16 test locations during 2007. Combined data included 15 hybrids and 9 test locations common for both years and it was analyzed as balanced experiment. The analysis of variance components showed that hybrid by location interaction explained 2.74, 5.8, and 3.72 times more variation than hybrid, for grain yield, for 2006, 2007, combined data, respectively, and indicated potential mega-environment existence. Our results showed the existence of two mega-environments in Serbia sunflower growing region: (1) Kula Vitovnica, Aleksa Šantić, Sombor and (2) Rimski Šančevi, Kikinda. It has been concluded that if we want promising sunflower hybrids to be optimally used, they should be cropped differently for the two determined mega-environments.