Registration of Two Food Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.)Varieties (HB 1965 and HB1966) for the Highlands of Ethiopia

Abstract

ABSTRACT
Twelve food barley genotypes advanced from the local crossing program and germplasmsintroduced from ICARDA were evaluated in a multi-location variety trial to identify stable genotypes with high grain yield, desirable agronomic characters and good level of disease resistance. The experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications at eleven environments during the 2014 and 2015 cropping seasons. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) depicted that SCFBRVT P#3/11 and FBRVTB P#24/11 exhibited the highest mean grain yield potential with good agronomic performance and good level of disease resistance across testing environments.The significant genotype by environment interaction (G×E) in the combined analysis of variance necessitated applying stability analysis in grain yield. Therefore, among the tested jenotypes FBRVTB P#24/11 showed the highest mean grain yield and stabilityin most stability parameters considered in the experiment followed by SCFBRVT P#3/11. Accordingly, the two varieties, SCFBRVT P#3/11 and FBRVTB P#24/11 were promoted to variety verification trial in 2016, and released in 2017 under the name HB 1965 and HB1966, respectively. Both varieties showed good physical grain quality coupled with high grain yield potential of 5.3and 5.5 t/ha, respectively. The two varieties have shown good level of disease resistance to leaf blotches and scald, good lodging tolerance and high biomass yield. HB 1965 and HB 1966 are six rowed types suitable to the highlands of major barley growing areas of the country. Moreover, HB 1965 is an early maturing variety suitable for frost-prone areas and double cropping barley production systems,while HB1966 is a long maturing variety suitable for the cool highland barley growing areas.