Assessment of Phenotypic Diversity in Breeding Lines of Barley at Rampur, Chitwan

— The experiment was conducted during winter at the research field of National Maize Research Program (NMRP), Rampur, Chitwan situated in the inner-terai region of Nepal. Field experiment was conducted in the Completely Randomized Block Design (CRBD) with three replications. Three blocks was made on the field as local control to obtain more accurate data. Each block contains 14 experimental units. The collected data was recorded, entered and tabulated in Microsoft Excel and then analyzed by using R-software. Analysis showed non-significant variation for number of heads per meter square and significant variation for all other remaining traits. CHZ-NP-108-OY (111DAS) showed highest days to maturity and B86019-1K-2K-0K3 showed lowest. Days to booting, heading and anthesis were found highest in variety Bonus (std. check) with 81 DAS, 88 DAS and 98 DAS, respectively. Likewise, total quantity of tillers and number of effective tillers were highest in variety B90K-090-0K (2.9 and 2.4 respectively) and lowest in B86019-1K-2K-0K3 (1.9) and B86099-50K (1.6) respectively. Plant height was highest in variety B90K-024-1-1-2-0K (107cm) and lowest in Xveola-15 (82cm). Xveola-38 showed highest result for seed length (11.2mm) and grain yield (1634 kg/ha). Correlation between most of the traits was significant. Plant height changed into vast and undoubtedly correlated with tiller range (0.3*), powerful tiller (0.44***), flag leaf width (0.41***) flag leaf period (0.35**). Grain yield in keeping with hectare changed into significantly and definitely correlated with days to maturity (0.07**), flag leaf width (0.41***) plant peak (0.45**) and grain yield according to spike (0.1**). B86019-1K-2K-0K3 showed better adaptability and results for phenotypic characters whereas Xveola-38 performed best for the yield and yield attributing traits. So these varieties have the possibilities and potential for further study in Rampur, Chitwan.


INTRODUCTION
Barley is a short seasoned, early maturing annual grain crop with some degree of tolerance to drought and salinity, which allows its production in a wide range of climatic zones including both irrigated and dry land production areas (Baniya, 1989). The genetic system of the crop is simple; however the species are genetically diverse (Vitrakoti et al., 2016).Barley is cultivated in extensive variety of environments in Nepal (Baniya et al., 1997).It has the capability to evolve well in adverse climatic and stress conditions and moreover, can be managed with little input. The geographical diversification of Nepal including fertile plains, sub-alpine forest hills and the Himalayas serves for the disproportionately large biodiversification, relative to its size. There  condition. The diversity assessment of barley helps to choose high-yielding, well adapted varieties to a particular region.
Barley occupies fourth position worldwide with the production of 141423028 tones and fifth in Nepal with production of 30510 tones (FAO, 2018). The total land under barley cultivation in Nepal is 24648ha (Krishi Diary, 2076). The significance of barley as a meals crop will increase with ascending altitude toward the North, wherein other cereals can't be cultivated correctly because of poor edaphic factors and excessive environmental stress, especially drought (OGTR, 2008). Although having so much potential, not many study and research have been conducted on barley as it's far taken as underutilized vegetation. although suggested barley manufacturing within the terai has declined in the past decade from 6000 to 3000 tons in keeping with year, manufacturing in the hills over the equal length has multiplied from 9000 to twelve,000 tons and from 8000 to 10,000 tons in the mountains (Baniya, 1989). This popularity in hills and mountains may have resulted due to its early maturing ability (1 month) before wheat favoring the summer crops. Also, the low adaptability of local varieties and fewer introductions of improved varieties may have caused the decreased production in terai. The research and studies made are limited. Barley has its growing popularity worldwide.
Huge topographical and agro-climatic diversification inside the country does not favor a single variety within all ecological niches. The cultivation and production of barley is low in the terai region due to the less knowledge on suitable lines in the tropical climate. Limited research and study works is major problem regarding the assessment of diversity of this crop. And hence, it calls for a need to study the performance of different varieties in different agro-climatic conditions and assigned the best breeding lines for particular climate type. This research is significant as assessing the high yielding breeding lines in accordance with the ecological diversity is the only way to improve the production and productivity of the marginalized farmers. Also, the availability of the scientific literature is limited because this crop has not been given much importance and is less researched. Moreover, the high yielding varieties of barley are assessed for temperate regions and less significant study has been made for the tropics. This research provides detailed estimates of agro-morphological and phenotypic diversity of available lines for pre-breeding purpose and functional diversity. despite its top notch capacity and possibilities, the crop has no longer been able to engross pleasant attention concerning studies and impro vement in Nepal and remains underutilized and ignored (Yadav et al., 2018).  When the spikes were well dried, threshing and cleaning was done followed by packing and storage. Data entry and processing was carried out using the Microsoft Office Excel 2010 software and means and standard deviation for all traits were compared. The testing of hypothesis and analysis of variance was calculated using R-software.

Phenological and growth attributing traits
In our experiment there was high significant variation for days to booting, heading, anthesis and maturity among the tested barley germplasms. A maximum day to maturity was observed in the treatment CHZ-NP-108-OY in 111 days and minimum days to maturity was observed in the germplasm B86019-1K-2K-0K3 in 97 days. CV value for days to maturity was 2.848386; LSD value among the tested germplasms was 5.045745 and mean days to maturity for the treatments was 106 days. Days of maturity ranged to 139-149 as reported by in Khumaltar, Lalitpur (Gupta et al., 2009). This is very high than our result. This could be the result of temperature difference between the two cities or increased global warming over time. which is slightly higher than our result. This might be the result of better adaptability and thriving of barley in cool climatic condition of Jumla. The total tiller number affects the number of effective tillers which in higher number might favor the higher yield per plant.
In our experiment there was highly significant variation for effective tillers among the tested barley germplasms. Maximum effective tillers was exhibited by the treatment B90K-090-0K with 2.4 tillers and lowest effective tillers was shown by the germplasm B86099-5-0K with 1.6 tillers. CV value for effective tillers was 8.198947; LSD value among the tested germplasms was 0.2634164 and mean effective tillers for the treatments was 1. In our experiment there was highly significant variation for flag leaf length among the tested barley germplasms. Maximum flag leaf length was shown by the treatment Xveola-38 with 12.9cm and lowest flag leaf length was shown by the germplasm Local check with 6.3cm. CV value for flag leaf length was 4.594492; LSD value among the tested germplasms was 0.7685383 and mean flag leaf length for the treatments was 9.9cm. The flag leaf length of barley germplasm was ranged from 9.78cm to13.6 cm in the research conducted by (Joshi et al., 2020).
In our experiment there was highly significant variation for flag leaf width among the tested barley germplasms. Maximum flag leaf width was shown by the treatment CHZ-NP-108-OY with 0.9cm and lowest flag leaf width was shown by the germplasm Bonus (std. check) with 0.4cm. CV value for flag leaf width was 4.515979; LSD value among the tested germplasms was 0.05383119 and mean flag leaf width for the treatments was 0.7cm. The flag leaf width of barley germplasm was ranged from 0.68 to 1.08 cm in the research conducted by (Joshi et al., 2020). It is slightly greater than our result. This might be due to the different germplasms used in the two studies.  In our experiment there was high significant variation for seed length among the tested barley germplasms. Maximum seed length was shown by the treatment Xveola-38 with 11.2mm and lowest seed length was shown by the germplasm B86099-5-0K with 9.8mm. CV value for seed length was 2.910947; LSD value among the tested germplasms was 0.508445 and mean seed length for the treatments was 10.4mm.This result is very higher than the seed length 6.9-9mm as reported by (    Correlation between all quantitative traits was analyzed. The days to booting was highly significant and positively correlated with days to heading (0.83***) and days to booting (0.84***). Days to maturity was non-significant and negatively correlated with days to booting (-0.09ns), days to heading (-0.09ns) and days to anthesis (-0.1ns).
Tiller number and effective tillers were highly significant and positively associated with each other (0.87***). Plant top became tremendous and negatively correlated with days to heading (-0.3*) while non-sizable and negatively correlated with days to booting (-zero.2ns) and days to maturity (-0.04ns). Plant top changed into significant and undoubtedly correlated with tiller wide variety (zero.three*), notably good sized and positively correlated with powerful tiller (0.44***), flag leaf width (zero.forty one***) while reasonably good sized and positively correlated with flag leaf duration (zero.35**).Flag leaf length and flag leaf width were highly significant and positively correlated (0.46***) with each other. Grains per spike and grain yield per spike were highly significant and strong positively associated (0.73***) with each other.
Thousand seed weight was highly significant and positively correlated with plant height (0.45***) and grain yield per spike (0.78***). Thousand seed weight and grain yield were non-significant and positively correlated (0.19ns) with each other.
Characters like flag leaf width and tiller numbers, seed length and awn length, seed width and flag leaf length are not associated (0.00) with each other.
In the article published by (Vitrakoti et al., 2016),grain yield in keeping with hectare had advantageous and noticeably massive end resultwith thousand seed weight (which was positive but non-significant in our result), positive and significant correlation with spike length (which was negative and non-significant in our result) whereas grain yield per hectare showed negative highly significant correlation with days to flowering. Although there exists positive relationship between yield and the other components, the negative correlation between some of them cannot make a useful choice for all as a factor in increasing the yield (Kannenberg 1976).There was nonsignificant positive correlation between plant height and thousand seed weight (Drikvand 2011), which was positive and highly significant in our result. Thousand grain weights had positive high significant association with grain yield per hectare (which was positive and non-significant in our result) followed by spike length (which was negative and non-significant in our result) and negative high significant association with days to flowering followed by days to booting and days to heading (similar to our result).
Highly significant favorable correlation among yield attributing tendencies suggests that, the unit increment in one of the trait will motive a unit increment inside the every other relatedtraits, which in turn will lead to increase in the grain yield. Hence, these traits could be pointed and noted for the improvement of grain yield by focusing on the associated traits (Vitrakoti 2016).

IV. CONCLUSION
Analysis showed non-significant for the number of heads per meter square and significant variation for all other traits. The analysis indicated that highly significant difference existed for most of the quantitative data which implies that there exists vast diversity among the breeding lines for different traits.
Plant height turned into considerable and undoubtedly correlated with tiller variety, incredibly significant and positively correlated with powerful tiller, flag leaf width while substantially and positively correlated with flag leaf length. Grains consistent with spike and grain yield in step with spike had been pretty widespread and sturdy undoubtedly associated with every different. Grain yield per hectare became drastically and undoubtedly correlated with days to adulthood, plant height and grain yield in line with spike whereas exceptionally giant and definitely correlated with flag leaf width. Xveola-38 performed better for yield attributing traits whereas B86019-1K-2K-0K3 showed better phenotypic characters and adaptability. These lines of barley have the possibilities and potentials for further study and research in Rampur, Chitwan. Early maturing lines like CHZ-NP-108-OY, B90k-024-1-1-2-0K, NB-1003-37/1034 and CO11#112-14 which have short crop period can be suggested for cultivation in drought prone areas as they can escape drought period. B86019-1K-2K-0K3 showed better adaptability and results for phenotypic characters which can contribute for the crop improvement and plant breeding program. Likewise, Xveola-38 performed best for the yield and yield attributing traits, so this variety could have the potentiality to be released for commercial cultivation in Rampur, Chitwan which can be justified after further study and research. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I am indebted to all the love, courage, support and encouragement shown by people around me during the whole period of my research and thesis. All this has given me strength to do my work with more enthusiasm for its successful completion. I am very grateful to each and every individual that made this research and thesis process successful and educational in every way possible. This research has been a great opportunity for me to increase my knowledge and experience. I am also very grateful to all the faculty members and staffs of NPI for their continuous support during my entire student life in NPI. My heart is filled with gratitude for Mr. Dhruba Regmi sir, who provided me an opportunity to carry out the research inside the Seed Production Unit, Rampur and also managed me the seeds to the fourteen germplasms of barley.