Impact of Climate Variability on the Tuber Quality of Potato Cultivars Grown under Contrasting Agroecological Conditions in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

Genotype × environment interaction (GEI) complicates the selection of potato cultivars with consistently favourable tuber quality across contrasting production conditions. Five commercial cultivars (Agria, Faluka, Kennebec, Kuroda, and Desiree) were evaluated during 2016–2018 at three agroecologically contrasting locations in Bosnia and Herzegovina using a randomised complete block design with four replications. Dry matter, ash, protein, starch, and ascorbic acid contents were analysed by three-factor ANOVA, Additive Main Effects and Multiplicative Interaction (AMMI) analysis with the, AMMI Stability Value (ASV), and principal component analysis; exploratory climate–quality associations were assessed across nine year × location environments. The relative contributions of environment and GEI differed across traits. Because each environment combined seasonal weather with altitude, soil type, pH, fertility, texture, management, and other site-specific influences, climatic and edaphic effects could not be separated. Of the ten climate–quality correlations subjected to Holm correction, only the negative association between mean growing-season temperature and starch content remained significant (r = −0.872; adjusted P = 0.022), although that did not establish causation. Trait-specific ASV ranked Faluka as the most stable cultivar for dry matter and protein, Agria for ash and ascorbic acid, and Desiree for starch; therefore, Kennebec was not considered universally stable. The first two principal components explained 65.94% of the standardised multivariate variation. Interpretation is limited by the small number of environments (nine) and by the absence of direct physiological measurements. Validation across additional years and locations, with greater climatic replication and explicit edaphic covariates, is required before broader recommendations are made.