Abstract:
Barley is believed to have originated in Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and Southeast Asia .Sixty
four barley genotypes were tested in 8x8 simple lattice design at Atsbi, Ofla and Quiha
environments in Tigray region, in 2009/10. The overall objective was to determine the
nature and degree of variability in morpho- agronomic traits of barley germplasm. Three
types of seed/kernel colors, as quality criteria observed were white, tan/red and black in
the percentage of 96.87%, except the genotypes Eritrea07 1, and ISEBON 14 with a seed
color of tan red and black respectively added to the variability of 1.56% each. From this
study, 60.69 % found as two-row type, 31.26% six-row types and 7.81% irregular type
across locations. It was observed that from these barley genotypes had a spike density of
which 6.25% were lax, 64.06% intermediate and 29.69% dense. All the testing entries
were awnletted and the caryopsis or kernel covering with a percentage of the genotypes
were, 21.88%, 10.94% and 65.64% stands for naked, semi-covered and covered types
respectively across locations. The phenotypic diversity index values for qualitative traits
ranged from 0.0 (monomorphic) for lemma/ hood to 0.86 high polymorphic for row
number, for awn color (H’= 0.71), kernel covering (H’=0.84) and spike density
(H’=0.82) revealed the highest diversity. Glume color (H’=0.34) and gain color
(H’=0.16), relatively showed the lowest diversity
