Abstract
With the total acreage of 50 million ha and an annual production of about 140 million tonnes, barley ranks high in world cereal production. Selection of new cultivars is mostly associated with a particular ideotype designed by the breeder in line with the targets and goals specified. Although grain yield is an ongoing objective in creating new cultivars, breeding work on barley is further expanded to include other traits, primarily grain quality and lodging resistance. Lodging resistance is largely determined by the genetic background of certain stem properties (length, strength and flexibility) and root system development i.e. structure. The degree of lodging resistance in barley is significantly affected by the morphological traits of aboveground parts (stem length, strength and flexibility; stem wall thickness; length, number and weight of internodes; spike size and spike weight). The new cultivars of winter malting barley currently used by producers are generally characterized by very good lodging resistance and an average plant height of 90 to 100 cm. Breeding spring malting barley has resulted in an optimal height (about 80 cm). Further changes should focus on increasing stem thickness and changing the anatomical structure to ensure sufficient stem strength.
Highlights
Cereals account for about 61% of total world arable land (Lef et al, 2004), with wheat occupying the largest area, followed by maize, rice and barley
New winter malting barley cultivars from Kragujevac and Novi Sad are characterized by very good resistance to lodging and an average plant height of 100 cm, indicating the potential for reduction in plant height by 10 to 20 cm in further breeding work (Tables 1 and 2)
Internode length is of large importance to plant height, with the priority given to the shortness of bottom internodes to increase stem strength and, lodging resistance
Summary
Cereals account for about 61% of total world arable land (Lef et al, 2004), with wheat occupying the largest area, followed by maize, rice and barley. During 2009-2013, the world area under barley cultivation was 49.8 million ha, with the total annual production of 137.3 million tonnes and an average yield of 2.75 t ha-1 (FAOSTAT; average 2009-2013).The poorer competitiveness of barley compared to that of wheat and maize has led to reductions in barley acreage in Serbia (except malting barley cultivars) to about 90,000 ha (Pržulj et al, 2010). The realization of the grain yield potential is dependent on a number of genetically determined factors and environmental conditions under which plants develop.
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