Yield stability of faba bean lines under diverse broomrape prone production environments

► The level of infestation and yield of tested lines varied with locations. ► Acceptable yielding lines were identified in infested soils. ► Yield of tested lines are higher than the susceptible check ILB1814 in infested soils. ► Yield of selected lines remained lower than check in non-infested soils. Faba bean ( Vicia faba L.) is one of the important pulse crops grown in many parts of the world. Its production and productivity are affected by different biotic and abiotic stresses. Broomrape ( Orobanche and Phelipanche spp.) causes yield losses of 7– 80% in major faba bean growing countries mainly in the Mediterranean Basin and Nile Valley countries. Host plant resistance is found to be the most effective and economic method of broomrape control. Efforts made at the International Center for Agriculture Research in the Dry Areas over many years to develop advanced breeding lines with acceptable resistance and tolerance levels to broomrape have resulted in the identification of several useful breeding lines. These lines were shared with National Agricultural Research Systems (Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia and Portugal) as part of the Faba Bean Orobanche International Nursery, in order to test their stability across three seasons (2005, 2006 and 2007). The results showed that Orobanche plant number, dry weight, Orobanche index, flowering date, maturing date and grain yield were significantly different among lines and locations. AMMI analysis showed that some lines derived from hybrid bulk populations “HBP/DS0/2000” and “HBP/ES0/2000” showed acceptable levels of yield stability in the presence of Orobanche infections across all environments compared with susceptible check. In highly infested soils, the tolerant and resistant lines gave acceptable levels of yield compared with the susceptible check. However, the yield potential of resistant and tolerant lines in non-infested soils was lower than the highly susceptible check.