Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.)

Description:

Barley is the fourth most important cereal crop in the world after wheat, maize, and rice. In most developing countries, barley is a typical crop of poor farmers, who grow it in hostile, dry, cool environments. In Tibet, Nepal, Ethiopia, and the Andes, farmers cultivate barley on the mountain slopes at elevations higher than other cereals. In many areas of North Africa, the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Eritrea, and the Yemen, it is often the only possible rainfed crop. Many consider barley to be the most drought and salinity tolerant of the cereals. The main constraints to improved production are environmental stresses (especially drought and cold), insect pests and diseases, nutrient deficiency and, sometimes, toxicity (e.g. boron in the highlands).

Because of its wide range of geographical distribution, barley has accumulated a vast array of genetic variability, which was maintained by landraces grown across the globe. Over the past 100 years, these heterogeneous landraces have gradually been replaced by homogeneous pedigreed lines in industrialized countries. However, landraces are still widely grown in developing countries, particularly in harsh environments. Today, CGIAR scientists are working to capture the genetic diversity that is rapidly disappearing, and promoting the use of landraces in barley breeding for difficult environments.

Statistics:

In 2004, global barley production stood at 154 million tons. Developing countries account for about 18 percent (26 million tons) of global production and 25 percent (18.5 million hectares) of the harvested area.

How Barley is Used:

Barley grain is mostly used as feed for animals, malt, and human food. Farmers use barley straw as animal feed in West Asia, North Africa, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Yemen, the Andean region, and East Asia. Malt is the second largest use of barley, but the CGIAR system is not directly involved with improving malting quality. In many countries, such as the highlands of Tibet, Nepal, Ethiopia, the Andean countries, North Africa, Afghanistan, India, and Russia, people eat barley in breads (mixed with wheat) or specific recipes. Developing hull-less barley with improved yield and resistance to common diseases offers great potential for these areas.

Nutritional Information:

Barley provides a good source of energy since carbohydrates constitute 80 percent of the barley kernel. Barley has been considered a high-energy food since the Roman times, when the gladiators were called "hordeari" (from Hordeum) because they were fed a barley diet before going to the Circus. Recently it has been found that the non-starch polysaccharides in barley, known as -glucans, can lower the blood-serum cholesterol level in humans.

CGIAR Centers’ Work on Barley:

The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) has a global mandate for barley.

In the dry and cold areas of West Asia significant progress has been made using a breeding methodology developed at ICARDA and based on the use of locally adapted germplasm and selection for specific adaptation. This has led to adopting varieties in very dry areas where it was thought breeding could not have an impact. Farmers who adopted the new cultivars reported consistent yield increases of about 20 percent.

ICARDA’s Latin America Regional Program, run in collaboration with CIMMYT, has been breeding and supplying new barley lines that are high-yielding and resistant to pests and diseases. Ecuador and Peru carried out successful breeding programs.

As a result of ICARDA’s collaborative work, more than 100 barley cultivars have been released in 34 countries worldwide. For example, it is estimated that about 20% of the barley area in Morocco is sown to new cultivars. In Iraq, ‘Rihane 03’ is grown on over 200,000 hectares, and ‘Zhenmai-1’ is grown in eight Chinese provinces, in three of which it covers about 100,000 hectares. In Syria, ‘Arta’ is being increasingly adopted by farmers because it yields 20-25% higher than any other cultivar.

Sources:

FAO. FAOSTAT.

Ceccarelli, S. and Grando. S. 1996. Hordeum vulgare L.
In: Grubben, G.H. and Soetjipto Partohardjono (Editors).

Plant Resources of Southeast Asia,
No. 10. Cereals. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden. Pp. 99-102.

CGIAR Priorities and Strategies for Resource Allocation
during 1998-2000.
April 29, 1997.

ICARDA Caravan,
Issue no. 3. Spring/Summer 1996.

ICARDA Caravan, i
Issue no. 4. Autumn/Winter 1996.