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Breeding Progress in Grain Yield and Selected Agronomic Characters of Winter Barley ( Hordeum vulgare L.) over the Last Quarter of a Century
Author(s) -
Martintello P.,
Delocu G.,
Boggini G.,
Odoardi M.,
Stanca A. M.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
plant breeding
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.583
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1439-0523
pISSN - 0179-9541
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0523.1987.tb01184.x
Subject(s) - cultivar , biology , hordeum vulgare , agronomy , yield (engineering) , biomass (ecology) , grain yield , plant breeding , poaceae , materials science , metallurgy
This study gives estimates of breeding progress achieved in winter barley ( Hordeum vulgare L.) since the 1960′s in grain yield and the change in several morphological traits for seventeen historically important cultivars: 12 six‐rowed and 5 two‐rowed, grouped into four epochs according to the period of major commercialization in Italy. All genotypes were evaluated across a range of soil fertility and climatic environments. The modern six‐rowed cultivars have shown a consistent increase in tillers/m 2 and seeds/spike (16 and 28 %, respectively) over the local populations. In the modern two‐rowed cultivar ‘Igri’ the increase in tillers/m 2 and seed weight were, respectively, 20 and 14 % snd seeds/spike decreased by 20 % over the local populations. The modern six‐rowed and two‐rowed cultivars have less lodging, are earlier and shorter than the old varieties and local populations. In the last quarter of a century, the breeding progress for gram yield has been increased by 52 and 74 kg/ ha/year or 0.75 and 1.1 % per year respectively, for six‐rowed and two‐rowed genotypes: while the gain in biomass yield in the same period was not uniform for six‐rowed cuitivars and increased by 64 kg/ha/ year or 0.46 % in two‐rowed cultivars. The grain yield improvement in the modern six‐rowed and two‐rowed cultivars is the result of a better partitioning of the photosynthetic products into the grain.