Enhancing Food Security Through Identification of Best Performing Barley Cultivars under Arid Conditions

Background: Plant genetic diversity is the key to the development of new crop varieties for enhanced crop production and improvement of food security. Barley is one of the most dependable cereal crop under saline and drought conditions and used majorly in feed, food and malting industry. The growth and yield of barley is highly influenced by the production environment and genotype. Methods: The study evaluated the growth and yield performance of fourteen barley genotypes under Kuwait’s environmental conditions. The field trials were conducted in Kuwait for two successive seasons 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 in a randomized complete block design with three replicates. Result: The combined analysis of variance has shown that plant height, number of tillers/m2, number of days to heading, hundred kernel weight, grain and biomass yield varied significantly between the fourteen different barley varieties. Similarly, all the parameters varied significantly between the years except hundred kernel weight. In addition, an interaction was observed between genotype and year, for all parameters except hundred kernel weight, biomass yield and number of tillers/m2. Taking into consideration the two growing seasons, the varieties Kuwait 3 and Kuwait 4 presented superior performance over other varieties in terms of grain and biomass yield under Kuwait’s harsh environmental conditions.