Evaluation of Genetic Divergence among Barley Genotypes Based on Agro-Morphological Characters |...

The ability to classify appropriate parents or populations to combine favourable genes is aided by knowledge of nature and the degree of divergence present in breeding materials. During the 2018/19 season, 28 barley genotypes were tested in an RCB design with three replications at the Gitilo site. The study's goal was to determine the extent of genetic divergence among existing breeding materials.The genotypesof barley were clustered into four clusters as a result of the study. Clusters I and II had the greatest inter cluster gap, followed by clusters II and III, and then clusters II and IV, I and IV, III and IV, and I and III, indicating that crossing among parents from these clusters was more common. The product of distant clusters is a diverse population of desirable alleles. In addition, cluster mean analysis revealed that clusters IV and III had desirable characters for high yield potential, such as net blotch and scald resistance, suggesting that they were suitable for direct variety growth. Principal component analysis showed four principal components accounting for around 83.4 percent of the overall variance (PC1:32.7 percent, PC2:22.4 percent, PC3:16.7 percent, and PC4:11.6 percent). Furthermore, for grain yield, biomass yield per plant, and thousand kernel weights, the biplot graph classified barley genotypes or populations 21, 20, 24, and 12 as desirable parents.

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