Evaluation of Improved Food Barley (Hordeum Vulgare L.) Varieties in the Mid-Land Areas of West and Kelem Wollega Zones of Western Oromia
Dereje Abera* , Wakgari Raga, Geleta Negash, Abay Guta, Biru Alemu
Citation : Dereje Abera, Evaluation of Improved Food Barley (Hordeum Vulgare L.) Varieties in the Mid-Land Areas of West and Kelem Wollega Zones of Western Oromia International Journal of Research Studies in Agricultural Sciences 2019, 5(8) : 1-8.
The field experiment was conducted on six improved food barley varieties and one local check at Haro Sabu Agricultural Research Center during 2014-2016 main cropping season. The main objective of the study was to identify, select and recommend well adaptable and high yielding variety for Kelem and West Wollega. The seed were sown in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications in the net plot size of 1.2mx2.5m. Number of effective tiller per plant (ETP), Number of spikelet per panicle (SPP), Plant height (PH), Panicle length (PNL), Number of grain per spike (GPS), days to 50% heading (DH), days to 50% maturity (DM, thousand seed weight (TSW) and grain yield (GY) were collected as Agronomic traits. Combined analysis of variance detected significant difference among main effect of variety, year and location for most of agronomic traits considered. The interaction effect of variety by year, variety by location and year by location imposed significant effect on all traits except for PNH, PH and PNH, DM and SPP, respectively. Likewise, variety by year by location had significant influence on all agronomic traits excluding PH. Among evaluated varieties; Dinsho (3.3ton/ha) and Abdane (3.26ton/ha) had significantly higher mean value of grain yield over the rest and followed by Biftu (3.19ton/ha). Moreover, the yield advantage of 14.58%, 13.19% and 10.76% were estimated for Dinsho, Abdane and Biftu, respectively over the local check (2.88 ton-ha). Therefore, the identified varieties were suggested for further demonstration and popularization in West and Kellem Wollega and areas with similar agro-ecology.