§ Newbarley varieties combining earliness and adaptation to low moisture conditionsthat reduce the effects of climate change.

§ Barleyis widely grown in the highland of East Africa where it is both an importantsource of food and the most dependable crop in marginal environments. Althoughbarley is considered a highland crop, it is also among the major cereal cropsgrown in the low rainfall areas of Ethiopia. In such areas, the availabilityand distribution of rainfall during crop growing seasons is the majoryield-limiting factor. Farmers in drought-prone areas grow mainly landracesthat are well adapted to their environments, but with a poor response toimproved inputs. Hence, the development and adoption of early maturing anddrought tolerant barley varieties have a potentially strong contribution inincreasing national production and in narrowing the food deficit.

§ Theareas affected by drought events in Africa have increased dramatically; Ethiopiais no exception. Until the last century drought was mainly affected thenorthern and eastern regions of Ethiopia, but in recent years it has expandedto highly productive regions in the western and southern part of the country.The adaptive stress tolerance/resilience of barley is of strategic importanceto face future climate change challenges. 

The new barley varieties were tested by EIAR researchersfrom 2001 to 2006 in low moisture areas and released in 2006. EIAR has beenpromoting the new varieties on farmers’ fields.

The users of the technology are the farmers growing barleyin dry areas, or under residual moisture, or in areas with and increasedfrequency of drought events. The critical and essential factors for successfulpromotion and adoption of the technology/innovation were:

§ Seedproduction and distribution. The availability of seed of the improved varietiesis essential for their diffusion.

§ Availabilityand access to input is essential for the expression of the yield potential inthe improved varieties.

§ Organisingfarmers’ research groups is essential to promoting and diffusing the newvarieties.

§ Linkingfarmers to markets is critical to provide them with better options for theutilisation of the crop harvest.

§ Access/availabilityof credit is essential to promote the use of quality seed and inputs.

The key challenges encountered in disseminating thetechnology were:

§ Unavailabilityof seed, which is essential for the diffusion of new varieties.

§ Unavailabilityand lack of access to inputs, such as fertiliser, or the lack of credit fortheir purchase may reduce the potential gains from adopting the improvedvarieties.

§ Lackof or inability of farmers to have access to output markets.

The recommendations for addressing the challenges were:

§ Assumingthat dissemination of the improved barley varieties is based on large-scaleverification and demonstration trials in the target areas, studies need to beconducted to identify constraints to adoption (e.g. seed availability, marketaccess, input market functioning) and options to overcome these constraints.

§ Farmers’perception and preference traits, as well as economic returns to adoption andits contribution to household income need to be quantified. 

The key lessons learned about the best ways to gettechnologies or innovations used by the largest number of people include: 1)using demonstration plots; 2) participatory variety selection; and 3) farmerfield schools.

Women play a critical role in agriculture accounting forabout 70% to 80% of household food production in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, womenusually have more limited access to resources and opportunities and theirproductivity remains low relative to their potential. Attention will be paid toavoid gender-specific barriers to resources, opportunities, and benefits.Regional adaptation studies identified no differential bias on adoption of newvarieties by women or men.

Name and contact of theorganisation:

International Centre for Agricultural Research in the DryAreas (ICARDA),

P. O. Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria;

Email: m.vanginkel@cgiar.org;

Tel: +963 21 221 3433;

Fax: +963 21 221 3490

Name and contact of scientist:

Geletu Bejiga, ICARDA,

Addis Ababa;

Email: g.bejiga@ cgiar.org;

Tel: +251 11 646 3215

Name and contact of keyscientist:

Stefania Grando; ICARDA,

P. O. Box 5466 Aleppo, Syria;

Email: s.grando@cgiar.org;

Tel: +963 21 221 3433;

Fax: +963 21 221 3490