Everything you need to learn about barley cultivation, production and growth.
Introduction to Barley:
Barley is one of the important Rabi cereals of India and is next to wheat in acreage and production. It is believed to be of great antiquity. Some are of the view that it is the oldest of all cultivated plants. According to Vavilov, barley probably originated in the arid lands of south-western Asia, northern Africa and in south-eastern Asia. USSR, USA, France, Spain, Turkey, West Germany, India and Canada are some of the important barley-growing countries of the world.
The area under the crop in India is about 2.9 million hectares and the total production is nearly 3.1 million tonnes of grain. It is mainly cultivated in the plains of the north. However, its cultivation is common at high elevations and may extend up to about 4,575 metres in the Himalayas.
UP, Rajasthan and Bihar are the three states with the greatest concentration of the crop and between them, they account for about 80 per cent of the total area under it in the country. Barley is grown in fairly large areas in MP, Punjab and Haryana besides the three states mentioned above.
The cultivated barley possibly originated from Hordeum agriocrithon L. or Hofdeum spontaneum C. Koch.
As compared to other winter cereals, barley is hardy; tolerant to salinity and alkalinity, and it needs a small amount of water. The crop is, therefore, very useful for areas, where it is not possible to grow wheat properly owing to unsuitability of soil conditions and absence of necessary irrigation facilities. Six-rowed types with hulled grains are most commonly cultivated in India. At higher altitudes, barley is an important article of food and six-rowed hull-less type are under cultivation there.
Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) belongs to the family Gramineae. It is an annual plant related to wheat and has a good deal of resemblance to the latter. It rarely attains a height of more than a metre. The young plants of early-maturing varieties are usually erect and little branched, while late-maturing ones are spreading, with many branches.
Leaves are similar to those of wheat. Ligule well developed. Inflorescence is cylindrical spike with alternating series of spikelets. Rachis strongly compressed and truncated. At each joint of the rachis, three spikelets are present, each one-flowered. At the base of the spikelet, 2 long and narrow bracts constitute the glumes.
In most varieties, glumes are lanceolate, hairy to glabrous, and each glume ends in a fine awn-like bristle. Awns on outer glumes may be almost as long as awns on lemmas. Sometimes hoods replace awns on two outer-most glumes. The solitary flower, enclosed in lemma and palea, is inserted behind these glumes. Lemma broad and rounded on the back and ends normally in a long awn. Some varieties have deciduous awns.
Awnless types are also grown. In hooded barleys, the lemma ends in a 3-lobed structure, with the middle lobe hooded. The structures of the ovary and ovule are very similar to those of wheat, but both ends are pointed in the case of barley. This character is visible only in naked or hull-less types. In all others, the grain is invested by lemma and palea.
Climate and Soil Required for Barley:
Like wheat, barley does very well in areas having cool winter. The crop is quite suitable for areas, where the rainfall is either low or erratic. Humid areas and also those, which are always warm, are not suitable. Barley is damaged if there is frost at flowering time. Hailstorms after complete development of grains also damage the crop very badly.
Soils suitable for wheat are also suitable for barley. However, barley does well on well-drained and moderately rich loams. It is grown in different types of soils, ranging from sandy to heavy loams in the Indo-Gangetic plains and on terraced slopes in the hills.
The crop tolerates alkaline and saline conditions better than other Rabi cereals and it is grown under such conditions in Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, UP and Bihar. It has recently been observed that successful crops of barley can be raised on coastal saline soils of Sundarbans and saline-alkali black soils of northern Karnataka.
Rotations in the case of barley are generally very similar to those for wheat. It is generally grown in rotation with bajra, maize, paddy, jowar, cotton, groundnut, smaller millets and mung in different parts of the country. Production is maximized if the land remains fallow in the preceding kharif. Barley may be grown pure or mixed with other Rabi crops, like wheat, gram, peas, lentil, linseed and rape and mustard.
Cultivation of Barley:
The cultivation practices are similar to those for wheat. A very thorough cultivation is not quite necessary. As compared to wheat, barley needs a slightly loose seed bed. For growing a crop under conditions of dry-land farming, water- conservation measures should be adopted.
At the time of last ploughing, BHC (10%) at the rate of 20 kg per hectare or Aldrin dust (5%) at 10 to 15 kg per hectare should be applied to the soil to prevent soil-pests from damaging the crop.
Sowing of Barley Seeds:
The crop is normally sown from mid-October to mid-November. Delayed sowings are likely to result in reduction in yield of grain and deterioration in its quality. While under rain-fed conditions, sowings are to be completed during the second half of October, under irrigated conditions, first three weeks of November are very good for the purpose.
As the crop has a short duration, it can be sown during the end of December to the beginning of January, after the harvest of paddy, potato and cotton in the plains of Bihar, UP, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and W. Bengal, and also in the flooded areas, after the water recedes by the end of December.
The seed-rate varies considerably in different areas. It is 55-56 kg/ha in Punjab, 70-95 kg in UP and Bihar and 85-105 kg in West Bengal, MP and Maharashtra. It has recently been observed that 75-80 kg per hectare and 80-100 kg per hectare may be used for irrigated and rain-fed areas respectively.
It is advisable to treat the seed before sowing with Agrosan GN or Ceresan at the rate of 2 g per kg of seed. Sowing of seed-is done by broadcasting or by drilling with the help of a single-tube drill. The recommended spacing between rows is 22-23 cm under irrigated conditions and 23-28 cm under rain-fed conditions.
Manuring and Fertilization of Barley Crops:
The rain-fed crop is not generally manured directly and the manure is applied to the preceding crop. A basal dose of 8-10 cartloads of farmyard manure or compost is applied to irrigated barley. The crop has been found to respond well to nitrogen, its optimum doses under rain-fed and irrigated conditions being 20-40 kg and 40-60 kg per hectare respectively.
Response to phosphorus has been found to be good up to 20 kg of N per hectare under irrigated and timely sown conditions in certain areas. Therefore, phosphorus should be applied on the basis of soil-test results.
The crop is raised on conserved moisture or under restricted irrigation. Usually, 2-3 irrigations are given. Intercultural operations are not quite necessary unless the soil is very weedy. Weeds can be removed by one hand-hoeing. They can also be controlled by applying 2, 4-D sodium or amine salt.
Harvesting and Yielding of Barley Crop:
The crop is harvested in the north-western states from the third week of March to the middle of April; in MP and in the southern and eastern states, a week or so earlier. In Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Karnataka, harvesting is done by about the first week of February.
In the hills, the crop grown during Rabi is harvested from the end of April to the end of May, and the crop sown during the spring is harvested from the end of July to the end of September. Harvesting of barley is usually done soon after maturity as delay causes shattering of grains.
The method of harvesting is like that of wheat. The threshing in the plains is done by treading under the feet of bullocks and the separation of grain is done by winnowing.
The average yield of grain of the rain-fed crop is 700-1,000 kg per hectare while that of the irrigated crop is about double the quantity. Improved varieties grown under irrigation, with recommended doses of fertilizers and management practices, can yield 5 tonnes of grain per hectare, while the unirrigated crop yields 2. 5tonnes.
Production of Barley for Malting:
Fully matured, medium-sized, plump, mellow grains, which are quite free from cuts and blemishes, have a bright golden-yellow colour, are 100 percent viable and have 1.2 to 1.4 percent nitrogen on dry-weight basis, are suitable for malting. At present, in the absence of a specific improved variety for the purpose, the grains of commercially grown 6-rowed barley varieties serve as the raw material.
A two-rowed Australian variety, Clipper, was recommended for cultivation in Gurgaon district of Haryana and its adjoining areas for producing barley for malting and brewing. Sowing of the crop should be done at the optimum time. Extremely fertile soil or application of too much of nitrogen should be avoided in raising it. A better grain yield and quality can be obtained by the application of 30 kg of N, 20 kg each of P2O5 and K2O, as basal dose.
Uses of Barley Grain:
The major portion of barley grain produced in India is consumed by the poor people either as flour or as parched grains to make sattu. It is also used to prepare malt for the manufacture of beer and whisky and certain other products like industrial alcohol and vinegar.
For the purpose of making malt, the two-rowed barleys are preferred. The grains of barley are also used for manufacturing pearl and powder products, which are generally given to the sick as diet. The grain is also fed to cattle and horses.
Varieties of Barley:
Some of the important varieties of barley grown in different areas, including a few recently released ones are- C 164 (for irrigated areas of Punjab), Kailash (for medium to low elevations of northern hills ,— possessing resistance to yellow rust), K 24 (for late sown conditions in UP), K 70 (for flooded areas of UP), Amber (for rain-fed areas of east UP), NP 113 (for Delhi), Jyoti (for irrigated timely sown conditions of north and north-western regions), RDB – 1 (for irrigated and timely-sown conditions in Rajasthan), Clipper (2-rowed – for malting and brewing), Ranjit (semi-dwarf, possessing resistance to yellow rust- for irrigated timely sown conditions), BG 108 (for irrigated late- sown conditions in north and north-western plains), Vijay, DL3, RD 31 and PL 56 (for rain-fed conditions in north-western plains), Ratna and Azad (for north-eastern plains), Rs. 6 (for irrigated timely sown conditions of central plains — possessing high tolerance to saline conditions), Himani and Dolma (for rain-fed conditions of northern hills — possessing resistance to yellow rust.
Diseases of Barley Crop:
The common diseases of barley are:
(i) Covered smut caused by Ustilago hordei, which can be controlled by growing resistant varieties and by treating seeds with Ceresan or Agrosan GN.
(ii) Loose smut caused by Ustilago nuda, which can be controlled by growing resistant varieties and by solar heat or hot-water treatment of seed.
(iii) Leaf, stem and stripe rusts caused by Puccinia hordei, P. graminis tritici and P. striiformis respectively, which can be controlled by growing resistant varieties and also by seed treatment with Benzimidazole in the first case and spraying the crop with Zineb @ 1.70 kg in 1025 liters of water per hectare in the other two cases.
(iv) Powdery mildew caused by Erysiphe graminis, which can be controlled by growing resistant varieties and also by dusting with powdered sulphur @ 15-20 kg per hectare and soil treatment with Benomyl.
(v) Net blotch caused by Pyrenosphora teres, which can be controlled by adopting the same measures as in the case of No. 1 above (covered smut).
(vi) Root rot and foot rot caused by Ophiobolus sativus, which can be controlled by growing resistant varieties, by seed treatment with Ceresan or Agrosan GN and also by adopting proper rotation and sanitation methods.
(vii) Stripe mosaic and yellow dwarf caused by virus, of which the former can be controlled by using virus-free seed and by growing resistant varieties, whereas no control measures is known for the other.
Insect Pests of Barley Crops:
Some of the common insect pests, which attack barley, are:
(i) Stem borer (Sesamia inferens), which can be controlled by pulling out and destroying dead-hearts in the initial stage and by dusting BHC or spraying Endosulfan.
(ii) Cut worms (Agrotis ipsilon and A. flammatra), which can be controlled by dusting 10% BHC on the soil around the plants.
(iii) Gujhia weevil (Tanymecus indicus), which can be controlled by ploughing the field in summer to expose and kill the pupae, by mixing 5% Aldrin or Ileptachlor with soil and by dusting 5% BHC.
(iv) Thrip (Anaphothrips flavicinctus), which can be controlled by dusting BHC or spraying 0.02% Phosphamidon or 0.03% Diazinon.