Agronomic performance of spring barley cultivars under different eco-environmental conditions

Abstract

In this study, five agronomic traits of 29 barley accessions were evaluated in different agro-environmental conditions. Accessions represented cultivars from Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, and the Nordic and Baltic countries as well as landraces from northeastern and eastern Russia. The field experiments were carried out in two countries (Latvia and Kyrgyzstan) in order to select the suitable genotypes or cultivars as a source for Kyrgyz barley breeding programs. Among the accessions studied, we found material that can be used in Kyrgyz breeding as potential sources of earliness, spike length and TKW. Among the cultivars, ‘Cecilia’ from Sweden showed an attractive agronomic performance, and had constant behaviour under Kyrgyz climatic conditions during two years of trials. Other cultivars like ‘Saana’, ‘Sencis’ and ‘Mette’ can also be included in future breeding due to their earliness, plant height, spike length and number of kernels. There were cultivars that had the stabile response of number of agronomic characters in these two locations over both years of trials. For example, the cultivars ‘Cecilia’, Mette, ‘Saana’ were stable in HD, SL, and NGS in different climatic conditions. Also, among the landraces there were candidates who showed stable behaviour for SL and TKW.