An examination of the efficiency of Australian crop variety evaluation programmes

In this paper we present the analysis of yield data from a broad cross-sect ion of crop variety evaluation programmes (CVEP) conducted in Australia. Th e main sources of variety by environment interaction are 'non-static' inter actions, namely those linked to seasonal influences. These contributed an a verage of 41.3 % of the total variance. In contrast the static component ac counts for only 5.3 % of the total. We develop methods for determining the relative accuracy of CVEP based on s election of newly promoted entries. The accuracy of the current testing reg imes for the Australian CVEP under study is determined. The accuracy of alt ernative schemes. with different numbers of years of testing, numbers of lo cations per year and numbers of replicates per trial is also examined. Cost effective methods for improving the accuracy of CVEP are discussed.