EVALUATION OF YIELD AND YIELD RELATED COMPONENTS OF SPRING BARLEY VARIETIES BASED ON MULTIVARIATE ANALYSЕS
Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate the yield and yield components of spring barley varieties cultivated in the Republic of North Macedonia using multivariate analysеs. Five spring barley varieties (Makedo, Xanadu, Josefin Variety, Gladys Variety and Scarlet Variety) were used as an experimental material. Makedo is Macedonian variety and the other barley cultivars were introduced. The experiment design was randomized complete block with three replications, carried out on the field areas in Probistip, Republic of North Macedonia. Makedo variety showed the highest value for grain yield (6 844 kg/ha), number of spikes per m2 (668), number of grains per spike (22) and hectoliter weight (68.5 kg/hl). Using Principal Component Analysis two main components were extracted, accounted for 82.46% of the entire variability among the barley varieties for all investigated traits. The first principal component explained 59.92% of the variance and factor loading for number of spikes per m2 (0.49), grain yield (0.48) and number of grains per spike (0.47) were the most important traits positively contributing to the PC1. The second PC accounted 22.53% of the variation and the factor loading for 1 000 grain weight (0.84) was the main highly positively trait contributing to the PC2. From all spring barley varieties only Makedo had positive values by both major components. Grain yield was positively correlated with the number of spikes per m2 (r = 0.795), from the one side and from the other side, with the number of grains per spike (r = 0.632).
