REMARK ON A DESIRABILITY INDEX FOR SELECTING GENOTOYPES

Plant breeders are often interested in simultaneously selecting for yi eld performance and stability. Recently, a desirability index called t he ''area under the function'' has been proposed, which combines mean yield and regression slope. In this note, it is argued that the desira bility index does not appropriately incorporate the distribution of po tential environments. A corresponding modification is shown to lead to the simple mean yield as a selection criterion. Reference is given to alternative ways of combining performance and stability.