Registration of Guta Barley (Hordeium vulgare L.) Variety for Bale Highlands

Guta is a common name for this barley ( Hordeium vulgare L.) variety with a pedigree designation of Acc.3260-18. The variety has been developed and released by Sinana agricultural research center for commercial production in the highlands of Bale. It has been tested at Sinana, Agarfa, Robe and Adaba major barley growing areas during 2003-2005 years and showed better performances in grain yield over local variety, Aruso and standard variety, Shage. Thus, the variety has shown high mean grain yield and relatively stable across locations and years. It also showed comparable responses to net blotch, scald and barley leaf rust diseases as compared to Aruso, but it appears that Guta was less resistant to these barley diseases as compared to Shage may be due to its earliness. On the other hand, as observed during evaluation Guta possess resistance or tolerance to barley shoot fly insect than Shage; and exhibit compensatory growth after shootfly damage and these needs further research. The early maturing characteristics of the variety suits to the different cropping systems in the area and give better adoption potential by the local farmers. Keywords: Guta; Barley ( Hordeium vulgare L); Yield Performance; Early Maturity