Barley breeding for quality improvement in Tunisia

This study was initiated to assess the effectiveness of three selection procedures applied in the early segregating generations of barley crosses for quality traits. The selection procedures were pedigree selection (PS), bulk selection (BS) and single seed descent selection (SSD). Selection was operated in F2’s crosses. Field trials were conducted with 19 F3 crosses of barley in two different environments, a sub-humid environment at Beja and a semi-arid one at Kef. Heading date (HD), thousand kernel weight (TKW), protein content (PC), β-glucan content (BG) and husk percentage (HP) were evaluated. Data were subjected to an additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) model to determine the efficiency of each method of selection for the proper environment. The results show that the AMMI model generated predictive optimizing selection method. The pedigree selection was more efficient in high input environment, while the bulk method was very effective for the selection of kernel weight in target environment.