Participatory evaluation of malt barley (Hordium disticum L.) varieties in barley-growing highland areas of Northwestern Ethiopia

Abstract

Although in Ethiopia, improved varieties of malt barley are released year after year, on-time promotion and distribution of released varieties to smallholder farmers are major research limitations. The study was initiated to explore the magnitude and extent of the performance of recently released malt barley varieties through farmers’ participation. The study was conducted at Guagusa Shikudad, Debaytilatgn, Farta and Lay Gaint, which represent barley-growing highland areas of Northwestern Ethiopia. Twelve malt barley varieties, Bahati, Bekoji-1, EH1847, Fanaka, Grace, HB1963, HB1964, Holker, IBON174/03, Sabini, Sington and Traveller, were used as experimental treatments. Treatments were laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Malt barley varieties EH1847, HB1963 and IBON174/03, showed wider adaptabable as well as relative stable across tested climatic zones. The farmers’ preference traits in malt barley varieties were relatively similar across tested highland areas. Moreover, disease resistant was ranked first across all climatic zones. The rank correlation analysis between varieties’ rank by farmers and varieties’ grain yield rank was positive across the tested climatic zones. Hereby, farmers could select the higher grain yield malt barley varieties based on agronomic preference traits to their agro-ecologies. Therefore, by considering both grain yield performance of the varieties and varieties’ rank by farmers, the recently released malt barley variety HB1963 should be pre-scale in barley-growing highland areas; also relatively older varieties EH1847 and IBON174/03 are used as genetic materials for the seed source in Northwestern Ethiopia.

Keywords

• farmers preference traits
• malt barley
• matrix ranking
• pairwise ranking
• preference ranking
• rank correlation
• stable variety