Improvement in Grain Yield and Malting Quality of Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) in Ethiopia

Abstract

An experiment was conducted using six malt barley varieties in randomized complete blockdesign with four replications at two testing locations during 2009 main cropping season. Theobjectives of this study were to estimate the progress made in improving grain yield potential ofmalt barley varieties, improvement in kernel quality attributes of malt barley and changes inagro-morphological traits associated with genetic yield potential improvement. Data werecollected on agro-morphological traits and on some malting quality parameters. Analysis ofvariance showed that there was a significant difference among varieties for all traits except grainfilling period, biomass yield and biomass production rate. On the other hand, grain yieldpotential of malting barley has risen at an average annual rate of 28.95 kg ha -1 (0.88%) year -1since 1979. There was also parallel improvement in total grain sink filling rate. Change in maltbarley grain yield was markedly associated with biomass production rate and total grain sinkfilling rate while year of release was significantly correlated with grain yield and total grain sinkfilling rate. Moreover, kernel plumpness was significantly improved as kernel size ≥ 2.5 mmshowed significant improvement (0.27%) year -1 and non standard seed size, i.e. ≤ 2.2 mm wassubstantially reduced as indicated in regression of kernel sieve test since 1973 when Holker wasreleased (-0.21% year -1 ), whereas other kernel quality parameters were within acceptable qualitystandard. Likewise, there was significant and positive association between improvements inkernel size greater than 2.5 mm and year of release of the varieties and varietal age wassignificantly and negatively correlated with nonstandard kernel size (≤ 2.2 mm). In general,future malt barley breeding effort should focus on comprehensive varietal development withfurther assessment of genetic gain in other malt quality attributes.