Screening of barley cultivars against Helminthosporium sativum and the stability of disease reactions and yield.

Stability of desirable genetic characters is desirable for development of improved varieties and useful for commercial exploitation over a wide range of agro-climatic conditions. Its adoptability in real sense is governed by its genetic makeup. Preliminary evaluation can be done to identify stable genotypes through screening. In barley, no trials have been initiated to test tolerance stability against blight disease caused by Helminthosporium sativum in different climatic conditions. The present experiment was designed to (i) screen a large number of genotypes with respect to disease tolerance and yields (ii) assess the stability of tolerance and effects on yield for future breeding programmes.