Evaluation of late maturing food barley varieties in Gamo highlands of southern Ethiopia

Abstract

The field experiment was conducted on thirteen improved food barley varieties and one local check at Chencha district of Gamo highland during 2015 main cropping season. The main objective of the study was to identify, select and recommend well adaptable and high yielding variety for targeted area. The experiment was laid in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications in the net plot size of 1.2 m x 2.5 m. Days to 50% heading (DH), days to 50% maturity (DM), plant height (PH), panicle length (PL), tiller number (TN) and grain yield (GY) were collected as agronomic traits. Significant variations were recorded among the tested varieties for the measured traits over the locations except for tiller number. The highest average grain yield (2427.8 kg/ha, 2077.8 kg/ha and 1972.2kg/ha) were obtained from varieties HB1307, Shege and EH1493 without significant differences between them respectively and the lowest grain yield was obtained from local check (1166.7kg). Based on the results obtained under these study HB1307, Shege and EH1493 could be used for demonstration, popularization and pre-scaling up in Chencha district and in the farming communities of similar agro-ecologies.