Combining Ability Analysis in Barley

A diallel analysis of combining ability for nine characters in barley revealed that the general and specific combining ability variances were significant for almost all the characters and also a preponderance of additive gene action for most of the characters. Grain number and grain yield were found to be governed by non-additive genetic variance. The crosses EB-533 × IB-226 and Promisa × Toluca-1 seem to be promising in yield improvement.