Multi environmental trials (MET) play a pivotal role in selecting the best genotype or agronomic practices to be adopted in future years at different locations by assessing the genotype stability across over environments before its commercial release. Objective of this investigation is to identify spine gourd genotypes that have high fruit yield and stable performance across different environments. The genotypes were developed by the various breeders at different centres of AICRN on Underutilized Crops in India. Ten genotypes were tested at four research centres for three years (2005-2007). Two non-parametric statistical tests of significance for genotype × environment (GE) interaction and 10 non-parametric measures of stability analysis were used to identify high yield stable genotype across the 11 environments. The non-parametric measures for G×E interaction were highly significant (p<0.05), suggesting different response of genotypes to the test location/year. Based on low value of non-parametric measures, RMF-17 was identified most stable genotype by Nassar and Huehn (1987); Thennarasu (1995). These non-parametric measures were observed to be associated with high mean fruit yield. The simple correlation coefficient using Spearman’s rank correlation, calculated using the ranks was used to measure the relationship between the stability parameters. To understand the nature of relationships among the non-parametric methods, a hierarchical cluster analysis based on non-weighted values of genotypes was performed. The 8 stability measures fell into four groups. At a global level information on genetic improvement, adaptability and genotype environment interaction of spine gourd is restricted to few publications.

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