Stability of fruit ripening traits of banana () across postharvest environments.

Banana () is the fourth most important export crop worldwide after cereals, oil crops and sugar. In spite of this socio-economic significance, the crop suffers massive postharvest losses caused by mechanical fruit damage, limited infrastructure for fruit ripening, postharvest diseases and physiological disorders. Although use of optimum postharvest environments such as packaging and storage temperatures can reduce fruit loss and improve ripening quality; information regarding the interaction between varieties and postharvest environments and stability of fruit ripening traits across postharvest environments is limited. The objectives of this study were to determine the magnitude of interaction of varieties with postharvest environments on fruit ripening traits and to identify stable banana variety for ripening across postharvest environments. Seven commonly grown banana varieties (Dwarf Cavendish, William I, Grand Naine, Poyu, Giant Cavendish, Butazu and Local variety) were laid out in a completely randomized design with five replications in ten varied postharvest environments. The result indicated that pulp and peel ratio had negative high principal component one (PCA1) score whereas the PCA1 score for postharvest period, peel weight and fruit weight were positive and high. Cluster analysis grouped Dwarf Cavendish and Grand Naine; Poyu and Butazu varieties together for postharvest traits whereas the local variety was clustered separately. This study has demonstrated that hybridization of local with the introduced varieties can be done to improve postharvest traits. AMMI depicted significant variation for genotype, postharvest environments and their interactions for all traits. The magnitude of environmental effect was higher than the genotype and interaction effects. AMMI and GGE biplot analyses identified Gran Naine, Poyu and William I as consistent for ripening traits across postharvest environments.