b. vaezi

Tolo common vetch forage cultivar with original name of VS-Jordan 2628 was initially entered to the country through ICARDA vetch nurseries in 1997-98 and it was evaluated in the adaptability test of the international germplasm at Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad (Gachsaran) and Lorestan (Kuhdasht) provinces. In Gachsaran, Tolo was selected based on its grain yield of 1077 kgha-1 and higher grain yield compared to the local check and in Kuhdasht area it was selected based on its dry forage and grain yield of 1032 and 465 kgha-1, respectively. In the preliminary yield trial in 1998-99, Tolo had dry forage and grain yields of 4438 and 1719 kgha-1, respectively. Also, in the advanced yield trial in 1999-2000 it had dry forage and grain yields of 2430 and 1080 kgha-1, respectively, and exhibited significant superiority to the local check. In the elite yield trial which was conducted in 2000-01 in Kuhdasht and Gachsaran regions, Tolo with average dry forage and grain yield of 2840 and 1216 kgha-1, respectively, as well as mean of rank, standard deviation of rank and coefficient of variation of 4.5, 3.51 and 17.1% for dry forage and those of 1.5, 0.58 and 52.9% for grain yields, respectively, had superior performance compared to the other genotypes and check cultivar. Tolo cultivar, in on-farm experiments conducted in different regions of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province during 2001-02, 2004-05 and 2013-14 cropping years, showed higher yield performance compared to the local check cultivar and other studied genotypes. Also, its forage quality was significantly superior to alfalfa and vetch cultivar Lamei. Other important characteristics of Tolo cultivar were high initial growth rate, rapid canopy cover, high grain filling rate and high 100-seed weight compared to local check.

Behdan barley cultivar with pedigree of Soufara-02/3/RM1508/Por//Wi2269/4/Hml-02-ArabiAbiad//ER/Apm was introduced in 2007-2008 growing season through IBYT-LRA-M trial, which received from International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). This cultivar was initially evaluated at Gachsaran Research Station and based on its higher grain yield (49% grain yield superiority compared to Izeh check cultivar) was selected. In the preliminary evaluation in 2008-09 growing season, Behdan had 64% and 34% higher grain yield compared to the check cultivars (Izeh and Mahoor), respectively. In the uniform regional preliminary yield trial in 2009-2010 growing season, Behdan had 13% higher grain yield compared to average grain yields of Mahoor and Izeh cultivars and in advanced yield trial in 2010-2011 growing season it had 3% and 7% higher grain yields compared to Mahoor and Khorram cultivars, respectively. Under farmer's conditions in Emamzadeh Jafar plain and Basht regions in 2014-2015 growing season, Behdan had 10% and 7% higher grain yields compared to Mahoor and Khorram cultivars, respectively. The protein content of Behdan barley cultivar was found to be 12.5%, indicating its good quality for feeding.

Use of unsuitable tillage practices and undesirable tillage tools has resulted to soil physical erosion and reduction in its fertility. In order to investigate the effect of different tillage methods on soil physical properties in wheat-fallow rotation, a study was conducted in a rainfed subtropical farm in Gachsaran in a factorial-based RCB design with 4 replications and 5 treatments for 3 years. Treatments consisted of A (Chisel plow +Disk harrow + Grain drill), B (Non moldboard plow +Disk harrow + Grain drill), C (Power harrow + Grain drill), D (Sweep + Disk harrow + Grain drill), E or control (Moldboard plow + Hand broadcasting seed and fertilizer + Sweep). The results showed that the effects of depth, treatment and their interaction effects on soil bulk density were significant at 0.01 level. Also, the effects of depth at two stages and the effect of treatment and their interaction at flowering stage on soil moisture were significant at 5% level. Although tillage methods E and D had the lowest effect on soil bulk density (1.49 gr/cm-3), but the lowest soil compaction was observed in the 0-10 cm layer by using chisel plow (1.37 gr/cm-3). Study of treatment effect at flowering stage on soil moisture showed that E and D treatments had the highest and the lowest values, respectively. However, toward the end of cropping season and at the ripening stage, maximum humidity was recorded (8.8%) for A treatment (Chisel plow +Disk harrow + Grain drill) and minimum humidity (8.2%) was observed for E treatment (Moldboard plow + Hand broadcasting seed and fertilizer + Sweep). Considering these results, we can conclude that A method could maintain more humidity in soil. Based on the results, tillage method A (Chisel Plow + Disk harrow) compared to E method resulted in an increase in soil relative humidity in 0-40 cm layer up to 7.3%. Therefore, it could be recommended for subtropical climate of Iran and similar regions.

Multi-environment trial data are required to obtain stability performance parameters as selection tools for effective cultivar evaluation. The interrelationship among several stability parameters and their associations with mean yield, along with the repeatability of these parameters in consecutive years was the objective of this study. Barley yield data of 18 cultivars, proprietary of Dryland Agricultural Research Institute, evaluated in 12 locations over 2005-2007 in three locations of Iran was used for the combined analysis of variance in three datasets. I: Across locations in a single evaluation year (dataset A), II: Across locations in each of two single evaluation year (dataset B), III: Across all locations in three years (dataset C). For each dataset, cultivar phenotypic variance and other statistics were appropriately partitioned in its components. The interrelationship among the parameters and their associations with mean yield based on Spearman rank correlation was studied in each of the three single evaluation years (dataset A). Rank correlation coefficients were also used as estimates of the repeatability of these stability parameters across two year combinations (dataset B). The parameters 2 σi Shukla and 2 Wi were consistently highly correlated with each other but not with mean yield in all single and pair evaluation years. The parameters bi , 2 Si and CV were consistently highly correlated with each other but not with mean yield in all single and pair evaluation years. Result showed that Shukla variance, Wricke ecovalence, SIPC1 and ASV AMMI stability statistics have high repeatability. Thus it is suggested that more stability statistics especially nonparametric methods be used for determination of repeatability methods.