Czech Republic and Slovakia (former Czechoslovakia) The Gamma-ray induced cultivar Diamant was officially released in Czechoslovakia in 1965. Diamant was 15cm shorter than the parent cultivar ‘Valticky,’ and had an increased grain yield of around 12%. In 1972, 43% of 600,000 ha of spring barley in Czechoslovakia were planted under either Diamant or mutant cultivars derived from Diamant. Roughly estimated, the total increase in grain yield was about 1,486,000 tons. During the same year, the spring barley cultivars that had mutated Diamant’s denso gene in their pedigree were grown all over Europe on an area of 2.86 million ha [23]. The high-yielding, short-height barley mutants Diamant and Golden Promise were a major impact on the brewing industry in Europe; they added billions of US dollars to the value of the brewing and malting industry. More than 150 cultivars of malting barley in Europe, North America, and Asia were derived from crosses involving Diamant [5].