Published in Scientific Papers. Series A. Agronomy, Vol. LXII, Issue 1
Written by Eugen PETCU, Liliana VASILESCU, Viorel ION
Nowadays barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) has become the fifth crop as importance worldwide. Although barley crop has a high adaptability in different geographic regions, according to FAO data the harvested areas have registered a decreasing trend during last decades at international level, from 83.69 million ha in 1979 to 47.00 million ha in 2017. In Romania, the barley harvested area in the period 1961-2017 registered an increase from 195,500 ha in 1964 to a maximum of 1,017,736 ha in 1991, so that to decrease after that to 455,460 ha in 2017, with a minimum harvested area in the period after 1991 of 317,235 ha in the year 2003. The objective of the present paper was to analyse the evolution of barley varieties (winter and spring) created and registered in Romania during 1921-2018. In this respect, different informational sources were collected, analysed and a barley varieties database was created since 1960 till 2018. In Romania, the barley history begins in 1675, when the first mention about barley was made by Nicolae Milescu, but only in 1880 appears some published data about cultivated area. During 1921-2018 period, in Romania has been registered a total number of 149 barley varieties. Among the winter six-row barley varieties cultivated in Romania, the Miraj variety registered the highest lifespan, being cultivated for 29 years and being cultivated on 1.01 million hectares in 1991. The record lifespan for winter tworow barley was registered by Andreea variety with 23 years, while for spring two-row barley the record was registered by Dvoran variety with 26 years.
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