Yield Stability and Adaptability of Spring Barley (Hordeum vulgare) Varieties in Polish Organic Field Trials

Abstract

In the next few years, the demand for organic crops, including barley, will grow. Barley is one of the world’s most important crops cultivated for food and feed. With the forecasted increase in cropped area, there is a need for stable, well-adapted and high-yielding varieties. The aim of this study was to assess the yield stability of ten varieties tested in the Polish organic post-registration trials in the years 2020–2022. For this purpose, we fitted a linear mixed model on plot data. Additionally, for each variety, we calculated the probability of the yield falling to a certain threshold. It is shown that the Bente variety was the highest-yielding among the tested varieties. The Pilote variety was the most stable in terms of Shukla’s stability variance. Furthermore, for the three highest-yielding varieties, the lowest values of the simultaneous selection index and the probability of falling below a certain threshold were obtained. We can, therefore, conclude that the highest-yielding varieties should be promoted for cultivation. Moreover, new varieties suitable for organic farming can be bred from the highest-yielding and most stable varieties.