Perspectives of barley breeding for the conditions of the Volgo-Vyatka region (analytical review)

The article is devoted to the analysis of the structure of sown areas and characteristics of barley varieties zoned in the Kirov region for 2020. In 2019 in the Kirov region the varieties cultivated in production for more than 20 years had the largest specific weight – 50.1 % of the acreage occupied with barley. Those cultivated for more than 10 years had 36.1 %; from 5 to 10 years – 13.8 %. Certified sowings varied from year to year in percentage to the occupied area. There is a gradual decrease in unsorted sowings of barley from 3.0 thousand hectares in 2017 up to 1.18 thousand hectares in 2019. The areas sown with barley varieties bred in Federal Agricultural Research Center of the North East named N. V. Rudnitsky (FARC North-East) in the structure of sown areas in 2019 were from 21.5 % in the southern zone up to 57.8 % in the northern zone of the Kirov region. For the whole of the region the greatest distribution was recorded among Belarussian cultivars Zazersky 85 (39.3 % of the areas sown with barley), and cultivars bred in FARC North-East: Ecolog (10.8 %), Rodnik Prikamiya (7.1 %) and Novichok (7.0 %). In northern districts of the region the ratio changed: Ecolog – 27.2 %, Rodnik Prikamiya – 18.9 %, Novichok – 9.0 %, Zazersky 85 – 7.7 %. High productivity (4.22-4.79 t/ha in average), resistance to lodging and diseases characterize the zoned cultivars. The main disadvantage of barley assortment offered for zoning is the lack of stable yield and differences in duration of the growing season among the varieties. All cultivars belong to the group of mid-season, except for the mid-late cultivar Zazersky 85. The region is short of the sources of high-quality raw materials for forage production; only 30.7 % of all assortment of barley in the region are presented by cultivars with high grain quality (Ecolog, Belgorodsky 100, Rodnik Prikamiya and Pamyati Rodinoy). Currently, the trend for developing high-yield early, resistant to lodging and diseases barley varieties of high grain quality is to become the key factor in breeding work.