ЭлБиб

Inaddition to man made crosses, natural outcrosses of ssp.

spontaneum

with ssp.

vufgare

exist in

Cyprus, Israel, Ethiopia, North Africa and other countries, having also brittle rachis, 6*rowed or two-

rowed types (Hadjichristodoulou, 1992b). Two pasture barley varieties have been released In

Cyprus, Akhera, a mixture of 2400 selected plants of natural outcrosses and Mia Milia, a mixture

of bulks of 117 man-made crosses. In the first year, the seed was covered by a light cultivation.

Since then the pastures germinate from the seed dropped Into the soil during the previous years.

No reseeding is necessary after the first year. They are grazed continuously for 3-4 months, and

then for 30-40 days before maturity they are not grazed in order to produce seed. The dry pasture

is then grazed during the summer and autumn. The total dry matter production in these pastures

was 3-9 t/ha, depending on the amount of rainfall (Hadjichristodoulou, 1995). This is very high yield

for the dryland areas of the Mediterranean region.

Pasture barley is a new use of existing genetic resources, which have not been exploited at all in

the past. This is the first time that experimental evidence is presented for using wildbarley genetic

resources as a pasture crop. Pasture barley can be sown in marginal lands, rocky or stony fields

as well as in uncultivated non-productive pasture areas. This is actually a new system of using

barley. It adds another significant use of barley to a variety of present uses (feed grain, malting,

hooman food (naked barley), hay, silage and grazing fields sown with barley.

The advantages of using self-regenerating pasture barley In the driest parts of the world lie in its

wide adaptation to hot and dry climates and its stability of performance. Even in the most dry

seasons, when other crops faile to give any yield, brittle rachis wild barley produces substantial

forage for grazing.

Breeders recently realized the great potential of genes present inwild barley, which have enabled

the survival of the species under the most harsh environmental conditions. As a result, there Is an

increasing use of wild barley in crosses with ssp.

vutgare

, Inorder to develop tough rachis barley

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