In spite of the importance of barley as a food and feed crop in Ethiopia and the efforts made so far to generate improved production technologies, its productivity has remained very low (about 1.3 ton/ha) compared with the world average (2.4 ton/ha). This is primarily due to the dominant use of low yielding farmers varieties; the influence of several biotic and a biotic stresses; and the minimal promotion of improved barley production technologies. Complex physiological responses to drought, various environmental factors, and their interactions, have slowed the development of improved cultivars for drought-prone environments. To facilitate the improvement of the Ethiopian barley collections activities like characterization and purification of the mixed collections; evaluation of the landrace collections in drought-prone and ideal environments; study of the traits that have a strong correlation with high yield should be performed. Therefore, future barley research should consider both specific and wide adaptation for stress breeding. If barley research is to be more viable and to progress systematically this effort must be supplemented with the molecular marker-assisted selection with the continuous study of the quantitative trait loci (QTLs) controlling the biotic and a biotic stress resistance /tolerance traits. The process ranging from the identification of appropriate resistance donors to the development of a selectable marker requires the collaboration of barley breeders with other disciplines.