A Simulation-Based Approach for Evaluating the Efficiency of Multienvironment Trial Designs

Plant breeding and official variety testing involve the challenge to design multienvironmental trials in several years and locations. Several variables influence the performance and, therefore, the possible selection gain of such trials. We provide a simulation-based approach using SAS to vary these variables and to allow a comparison of different scenarios for the design of series of trials regarding selection gain. Our approach builds on the FORTRAN software tool SELSYS. Three examples of its application are given.