This document summarizes a study on identifying promising adaptive variants in wheat and barley from Ethiopian gene banks. The study evaluated 100 accessions of wheat and 100 of barley across three sites in Ethiopia with the participation of 140 wheat farmers and 10 barley farmer couples. A total of 41 variants in wheat and 55 in barley exhibited excellent or promising performance across various traits. Farmers selected 23 common variants that researchers also found promising. The study highlights the importance of conserving genetic diversity and indigenous knowledge for developing improved crop varieties adapted to climate change.

1. Alganesh T.,Mehamed Ehsan.D,Kassahun E.,
Basazin F.,Tesfaye W.S.,Marteen, Imke,
Tesema T. and Wilson M.
Institute of
Biodiversity
Conservation

2. Synopsis
•Introduction
•Objectives
•Methodology
•Results
•Recommendations

3. Introduction
The effect of physical feature of Ethiopia
Challenges
Options

4. The possible explanations
 Physical feature of the country

5. Chain mountains 4620 m.a.s.l
120 m.b.s.l

6. • Great Rift Valley ¨µ‹“ c”cKT }^a‹
Great Rift Valley

7. Rivers and lakes

8. Arabian sea
Indian ocean
Atlantic ocean

9. All this situation makes the country
to have diversified ecological zone
862/16

10. 201/9

12. 277/31

13. 74

15. 140 130 ,000,000
oDemographic pressure
120
100
80,000,000
76,000,000
80
67,000,000
60
40 30,000,000 World :9600/hour
Ethiopia : 193 / hour
20 : 4632/day
0
1960 G.C 2002 G.C 2008 G.C 2011 G.C 2020 G.C

16. oClimate change

17. What we have done ? oEx-situ conservation
60,000 acc. orthodocs seeds
10,000acc. recalsitrant
oil crops
pulses 7,000
8,000 12%
13%
cereals
45,000
75%

18. 39%
Other cereals
61%
Wheat & Barley
26,000 accession of W&B stored

19. What's not?
oIn - Situ Conservation?????
oInventory???????????????
12 community gene banks

20. •Taxonomic classification
Wheat
Family :Poaceae
Genus :Triticum
Origin and Domestication
o Fertile crescent, domesticated 10,000 years ago
Barley
Family :Poaceae
Genus :Hordeum

21. Objectives
oTo identify promising adaptive variants
oEvaluate and characterize prommising accessions from
gene banks with the participation of women farmers
oTo make available & provide access to better-suited crop
varieties for targeted local communities to use in adapting
to climate change.

22. Materials and Methods
oGenetic materials – 100 Acc of Wheat & 100 Acc of barley
(Koka, Ejerie, & Cheffe- 1400,2200 &2450
Evaluators
o140 W and 10 couples were selected
oExploited 19 traits for wheat & 16 traits for barley.

24. No of variants found per crop
60
No of variants
40
41 55
20
0
Wheat Barley
Crop type

25. 41 variants found per2000genotypes of wheat in Koka
10 v excellent
performance
17v
intermidate
EP
ISH
OT
14v off type

26. No of variants selected by women farmers / seed color
9
9VW
8
7
6
5VR
5
4
3VP
3
2
1
0
17 v selected by farmers

27. Researchers
Farmers selection
selection
8v
7v 8V 23v
Common variant

28. Comparison made among sites
Koka site Ejerie site
8v
2v 13V 2v

29. How selection criteria affects diversity ?
33v

30. o Math logic :1X + 1X = 2X ,
o Diversity logic : 1X + 1X = only 1X
o………………...: 1X + 1Y = 3 = X,xy,Y
oTherefore ,we have to look always for the
unique character

31. Awn roughness farmers preference
15 v RA in
Ejerie
16 vsmooth
in cheffe
15 vrough
in koka

32. Improved variety
Land race

33. Some variants susceptible to head smut

34. Ethiopian seed Custodian

35. Cause & effect of genetic erosion
Ik not
documented

36. Recommendations
Farmers are a source of valuable information and knowledge.
Therefore, it should be documented protected and broad cast
their vital indigenous knowledge
Without a diverse genetic reservoir to draw for further
improvement may not be possible, therefore it should be
conserve our genetic reservoir.
It would be better to encourage farmers to continue to manage
a landrace gene pool in evolutionary real time

37. IK
Conservatio
n
Research

39. Relax but respect the ecosystem
Thank you