Abstract
Barley landraces is among the major cereal crops grown in Ethiopian highlands including Bale highlands. However, in recent days, the crop is highly declining to the extents of total loss. This study was, therefore, aimed at assessing the extents of its on-farm diversity and genetic erosion from Bale highlands, Ethiopia. Data were generated from twelve administrative districts and analyzed considering important ecological and genetic erosion models. A total of 25 distinct (at least in naming) barley landraces with varying distribution patterns have been identified in the areas. Landrace richness (R) revealed higher magnitude among all the study districts, the smallest being 2.02 (DMg) and 1.41 (DMn) and considerable range of variations (DMg = 2.02 to 5.02, DMn = 1.41 to 3.17). Among the study districts, Dinsho consisted the highest on-farm diversity estimate (DMg = 5.02, DMn = 3.17) followed by Goba and Sinana (DMg = 4.50 and 3.97; DMn = 2.87 and 2.57 in that order). Estimate of the landrace evenness (E) also showed the highest magnitude (>0.95) except in Agarfa district (0.77). The result suggests potentiality of the areas and wide cultivation of majority of the landraces in the villages. However, nowadays, only 14 landraces are under cultivation and the remaining 11 are totally eroded from the district(s) constituting the highest (56.0%) combined genetic erosion suggesting loss of important agronomic traits and, thus, a major bottleneck for further improvement and conservation plans. Thus, attention should be payed to conserving the landraces for better further use.
Highlights
Genetic erosion refers to loss of genetic variability over space and time [1, 2]
326 or 81.5% of the total population were males and the remaining 74 or 18.5% were females, most of which are divorced and/or widowed. Such larger number of males over females in all the study districts and their respective kebeles implies the less involvement of women and dominance of males in agricultural practices in general and barley production in particular
Bale highlands is among the potential areas in the country and could be the hotspots for the barley landrace conservation and breeding as evidenced from the present study that revealed a large number of (25) distinct landraces, at least in naming
Summary
Genetic erosion refers to loss of genetic variability over space and time [1, 2] It could be detected at various levels of taxonomic units such as at a species, population, or biodiversity level as well as at different geographic ranges. In real sense, it represents either the loss of entire populations or the loss or change in frequency of specific alleles rare alleles or allele combinations present within a population or in a given species as a whole. It has become a critical agenda for the international agricultural community since the mid-1900s [3]
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