In the highlands of Tibet, Nepal and Ethiopia, in the Andean countries, and also in some areas of North Africa, Afghanistan, India, China and Russia, barley is still used as human food either for bread making (usually mixed with bread wheat) or for specific recipes. The interest in barley as a food crop is increasing not only in the areas of its traditional use. Barley improvement programs in USA, Canada, Japan, and Australia include food barley in their breeding work. Breeders in Turkey and Iran, where winter types dominate barley production, have started to pay more attention to hulless barley germplasm. However, most of the progress achieved in breeding naked barley has been generally limited to spring barley. Therefore, the first steps of these national programs should be directed to improving the cold tolerance of hulless barley. In this respect the results of ICARDA activities in the last few years may be useful.

The cold tolerance of a large collection of naked barley was tested under controlled conditions at ICARDA and at the Krasnodar Research Institute of Agriculture (Russia), and under natural conditions in Turkey. The experiments have shown that the majority of hulless barley lines have low cold tolerance. This is especially true for germplasm with increased protein content in grain.

However, some promising material has been identified during the evaluation in different locations. First, three hulless barley lines were identified which possess a level of frost tolerance comparable with the best world standards. The first is Himalaya, a six-row line with smooth long awns from the ICARDA germplasm collection (ICB 100 819). It is a typical winter type, with prostrate habit and poor early growth vigor. Resistance to lodging is satisfactory at the yield level of 3-4 t/ha. The line is moderately resistant to powdery mildew and to net blotch, but highly resistant to leaf rust. Grain size and protein content are still not as good as in the best hulless lines of spring barley.

The second is a two-row line with long smooth awns (ICB 101354), which possesses improved grain quality characteristics. It has completely prostrate habit at the beginning of growth, high tillering capacity and moderate resistance to leaf diseases.

With regards to cold tolerance, both lines are unique breeding material. Results from controlled testing in the freezing chambers show that they considerably surpass the most commonly grown varieties in Turkey and Iran (Table 1).

* percentage of survived plants; CD = cold damage in the field (score: 1 = no damage, 3 = moderate, 5 = severe damage); GH = growth habit (score: 1 = erect, 3 = intermedium, 5 = prostrate); GV = growth vigor (score: 1 = very good, 3 = moderate, 5 = very poor); TKW = one thousand kernel weight in gr; PC = protein content in the grain (%).

A third hulless barley line (H-1) was identified after screening ICARDA breeding material in Krasnodar for cold tolerance, disease resistance and resistance to lodging in high soil fertility conditions. This line has increased winter hardiness and a complex of positive agronomic traits. Many years of testing show its consistent resistance to lodging and to diseases. In 1996 its yield reached 5,500 kg/ha. It is a six-row type with long rough awns. The line was included into the 1998 crossing program and the segregating populations generated will be used to study the genetic relationship of the traits.

Even though some agronomic characteristics of these three lines are still not satisfactory, they represent a valuable breeding sub-product for further work. All these lines were included into the WBCB-CH-CW-99 nursery and were sent to many collaborators in the highlands and to CAC (Central Asia and Caucasus) countries. Seed samples are available at ICARDA headquarters: ICARDA, P.O.Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria.