Dual-purpose barley genotypes for North Africa region – 2021 Report
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Miguel Sanchez-Garcia. (31/12/2021). Dual-purpose barley genotypes for North Africa region – 2021 Report.
Abstract
In the Drylands of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, integrated crop and livestock farming
is the predominant system. Traditional small-scale farmers need to maximize the productivity of their
farms while coping with drought, heat, pests and diseases under a Climate Change scenario that affects
them particularly. For these famers, cereal forages, stubble and straw are the main feed source for small
ruminants during summer and winter seasons (Ryan et al., 2008) and with fodder and forage prices
increasing (FAO 2018), breeding and growing cereals targeting more than just grain yield is a necessity. In
this scenario, barley can be considered the perfect crop to increase food and feed security by intensifying
animal and crop production per unit area in a context where arable land is limited. Strategies such as dualpurpose are particularly profitable for barley, that produces higher forage dry matter with lower yield and
straw penalty. The combination of barley forage, straw and grain profits can be 12% superior to those of
other cereals and to strategies were only grain is targeted in regional environments with more than
300mm (Ates et al., 2018). Recent studies have shown that the ICARDA Global Barley Breeding Program
was able to develop new dual-purpose barley genotypes that produce up to 30% more forage than the
best commercial checks (Verma 2019; Sanchez-Garcia 2021). Although these lines suffered yield and straw
production penalties due to the dual-purpose management that hindered the system’s profitability due
to the typical drought and scatter rainfall pattern of the Mediterranean areas, elite lines with superior
forage production and limited (8%) yield penalty could be found. In the present study we aim to test a set
of 37 elite ICARDA barley genotypes and 3 commercial checks including 9 lines selected in past years for
their superior forage production and regeneration capacity in the field in Morocco under simulated
grazing and conventional conditions to determine their forage production, yield and biomass regeneration capacity and straw quality.
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Author(s) ORCID(s)
Sanchez-Garcia, Miguel https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9257-4583