Malting Quality of ICARDA Elite Winter Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) Germplasm Grown in Moroccan Middle Atlas

The use of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) in Morocco is still limited to food and feed despite the demand by local industries for imported malt. This study aims to evaluate 36 barley lines for major grain physicochemical parameters and malt quality traits. Analysis of variance, correlation, principal component analysis (PCA), and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) performed. The results showed significant genotypic variation among genotypes for individual and malt traits. High broad sense heritability was obtained for all traits except for plump percentage, malt friability, and germination capacity. Starch, malt extract, Kolbach index, area, and test weight correlated significantly and negatively with barley protein. Malt extract positively with Kolbach index and starch, but a negative correlation with soluble protein malt protein was found. Based on 12 characters, 77% of the total genotypic variation was by the three first principal components following PCA and four clusters were depicted on HCA. Genotypes of high interest with desirable levels of quality standards were identified be used as a malt quality traits donor while designing crossing programs.