Multi-Location Evaluation of Yield and Yield Related Trait Performance in Food Barley (Hordeum Vulgare L.) Genotypes at Western Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L) (2n = 2x = 14) is one of the most important staple food crops in the highlands of Ethiopia. It is a cool season crop, the most dependable and early maturing cereal grain with relatively high yield potential including in marginal areas where other cereal crops cannot have adapted [14, 31]. The major barley production areas of the world include: Europe, the Mediterranean fringe of North Africa, Ethiopia and the Middle East, former USSR, China, India, Canada and USA [16]. Ethiopia is the second largest barley producer in Africa, next to Morocco, accounting for about 25 % of the total barley production in the continent [10]. However, there is great yield gap between national average yield (2.11 t/ha -1 ) [7] and world average yield (3.04 t/ha -1 ) (Foreign Agricultural Service/USDA April 2017 Office of Global Analysis). This production limitation may be attributed to primarily the low yielding ability of farmers’ cultivars, which are the dominant varieties in use; the influence of several biotic and a biotic stresses; and poor promotion of improved barley production package technologies [1].