Diversity between some Ethiopian farmer's varieties of barley and within these varieties among seed sources

Barley is one of Ethiopia's major crops. Cultivation is mostly by traditional varieties that are chosen by farmers for their suitability for end-use or their adaptation to specific farming systems. A collection of 155 barley lines was grouped in 13 varieties, according to the name given by the farmers. The collection was evaluated for simple agronomic traits and resistance to barley scald disease. A large level of diversity was found, mainly between varieties, but also within varieties between farms from which the samples originated. In spite of a certain degree of overlapping, these traditional farmer's varieties showed coherence for the characters measured. Earlier maturing varieties were found to be more susceptible to scald, but a number of accessions combined earliness with scald resistance. It is suggested that the traditional variety name be included, next to the physical characters of the collection site, as a parameter to explain the degree of diversity in Ethiopian barley germplasm evaluation. The cultivated area of a number of traditional barley varieties is declining rapidly and special collection missions are needed to preserve this germplasm.