Barley is a robust food crop which can be grown under harsh conditions in remote areas, including mountain slopes belonging to resource poor farmers. These farmers have, over generations, selected indigenous material and thereby created locally adapted landraces. The grains are used in particular for baking, making porridge and drinks, using a wide range of locally developed recipes. In this way, barley is an important food security crop in Ethiopia, and it is a priority crop for the Ethiopian Government. However, the local landraces are threatened by introduction of other improved crops, such as wheat and potato, which are not as resilient to local conditions as barley. To secure future production of the locally adapted landraces, it is important to support breeding of barley, based on local landraces, to improve specific traits, such as drought tolerance and disease resistance, which are sought for by the farmers. This will make the farmers want to continue with barley farming. New breeding techniques (NBT) can be used to accelerate breeding to reach a planned yield goal of 3.9t/ha in 2030.