Adaptability and stability for cooking quality in cowpea by GGE biplot approach

Cowpea is a crop used as a strategy to mitigate human malnutrition in many parts of the world. Biofortification has been used with the objective of accumulating high levels of proteins and minerals in genotypes. Cooking quality is an important trait for a cultivar recommendation. Consumers prefer cultivars with a shorter cooking time. However, indicating genotypes with good cooking quality for a set of environments can be difficult due to the interaction between genotypes x environments "(G x E)" . The objective of this study was to evaluate the adaptability and stability for cooking quality in the grain of cowpea genotypes evaluated in the Piauí semi-arid zone, Brazil. The randomized complete block design was used with four replications. Eighteen elite lines and three commercial cultivars were evaluated in the environments of Monsenhor Hipólito, Miguel do Tapuio and Pio IX, located in the state of Piauí. Samples of 25 grains from two replicates per genotype/environment were used. Grain samples were placed in voile bags with their respective identification. The bags were placed in distilled water for 60 minutes. The samples were cooked for 30 minutes in a 5-liter electric pressure cooker. The evaluation of the percentage of cooked grains was carried out with the aid of a Mattson cooker. The joint ANOVA was carried out and the effect of genotype, environments, and "G x E " interaction were significant (p<0.01) by F test. The adaptability and stability parameters were evaluated by the GGE Biplot approach, all analyzes were performed by the computational and statistical environment R. The BRS Pajeú followed by BRS Marataoã and MNC11-1052E-3 were considered the desirable ideotypes, as they combined high stability and highest percentage of cooked grains. The cultivar BRS Pajeú has general adaptability to all growing environments. The SMT environment was the most discriminating in relation to the genotypes, and MSH the most representative. Therefore, the BRS Pajeú and BRS Marataoã cultivars, and MNC11-1052E-3 line had satisfactory cooking quality, showing high adaptability and general stability for all evaluated environments.