An overview of barley breeding and variety trials in Iceland in 1987-2014

作者：Hilmarsson Hrannar Smari; Goransson Magnus; Lillemo Morten; Kristjansdottir Pordis Anna; Hermannsson Jonatan; Hallsson Jon Hallsteinn^*

来源：Icelandic Agricultural Sciences, 2017, 30: 13-28.

DOI：10.16886/IAS.2017.02

• Barley
• breeding
• cultivar testing
• marginal environment
• sub-arctic agriculture

Barley is of great importance in modern agriculture and is currently the fourth most important cereal after wheat, maize, and rice. It is well adapted to a range of climatic and day-length conditions, with a distribution from Ethiopia to northern Scandinavia. Despite this, Iceland, with its sub-arctic agriculture, is considered to be at the margin of barley cultivation. Still the importance of barley has steadily increased in Icelandic agriculture, most likely as the result of positive environmental change, continuous testing of new Nordic cultivars, and an Icelandic barley breeding project. Here we present a review of the results from barley cultivar trials from 40 locations over a 28-year period in Iceland in the years 1987-2014. The results showed that yields were rising and the time from sowing to harvest was getting shorter. Also, the Icelandic genotypes were heading earlier, while showing higher yields. The results also showed that test locations were getting fewer but at the same time the number of tested genotypes was increasing. The analysis presented here highlights both the strengths and weaknesses of the current breeding program and is therefore an important basis for future breeding projects for Icelandic agriculture and possibly for other small scale breeding projects aimed at peripheral areas.

• 出版日期2017