Performance of 50 Lebanese barley landraces (Hordeum vulgare L. subsp. vulgare) in two locations under rainfed conditions [electronic resource].

Includes reference.

Breeding activities in Lebanon have attributed limited interest to barley and landraces have not been exploited before. In this study, 50 Lebanese barley landraces were experimented rainfed in Northern Bekaa in comparison with two checks, Assi and Rihane-3. Two field trials were conducted, the first at 1000 m a.s.l. and 171.6 mm precipitations, and the second at 648 m a.s.l. and 119.4 mm. Out of the 50 landraces, five named LR9, LR12, LR16, LR30 and LR32 were early in heading and maturity in both trials, similarly to checks. Landraces showed a large variability for yield components, particularly grain number per spike and thousand grain weight. Number of spikes per plant and grain weight per plant were twice greater in Kfardan than Qaa location. The best plant productivity in Kfardan was 3.8 g/plant recorded for LR11 vs. 3.46 g/plant obtained with LR33 in Qaa. The higher yield was recorded in Qaa trial with 255 g/m2 for LR31 and 244 g/m2 produced by LR32, while 211 and 200 gfm2 were recorded in Rihane-3 and Assi checks respectively. Principal components analysis allowed to distinguish several landraces that were clustered next to the checks sharing similar features of plant height, spike length and yield per m2. At the level of individual plants and based on the grain yield per plant, a set of 47 plants were found to be similar or even greater to the checks. These plants should be further evaluated for their agronomic performance within national breeding program.