Grainswest - Winter 2019

Winter 2019 grainswest.com 25 Ana Badea Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada research scientist, barley breeder, Brandon, MB GrainsWest: What will it take to get barley yield and agronomic performance in line with other crops? Ana Badea: We need a collective effort to streamline the process of getting new varieties to market. My part is to find ways of shortening the breeding process. Licence holders, seed companies and malting houses must play a role in getting varieties validated and on the list sooner so they’re available to farmers. GW: How urgent is the need to increase barley yield? AB: There is a lot of urgency because barley’s image as a lower-yielding crop is causing its acres to continue shrinking. We must provide farmers with the proper tools in the form of good-yielding varieties available in a timely manner. GW: Describe the work you’re doing to enhance barley yield. AB: As a breeder, yield is a constant focus when evaluating breeding lines; that is how we select the material. We’re also looking at how consistent yield is across different environments. We want to develop cultivars for Western Canada, so we test our varieties in their area and vice versa to ensure high yields across provinces. Also, disease resistance is a priority. We hope that once genomic selection or a prediction model is developed for Fusarium resistance, we can use a similar approach in regard to yield and other traits of interest.