Barley research in India: Retrospect & prospects

Abstract

Barley is one of the founder crops of old world agriculture and was
one of the first domesticated cereals. It is fourth largest cereal crop
after maize, wheat and rice in the world with a share of 7 per cent of
the global cereal production. The crop is considered as poor man’s
crop and better adaptable to problematic soils and marginal lands.
It is not only useful for malting, feed and food purposes but also its
β-glucans is helpful in lowering the risk of cardio-vascular diseases.
Prior to the inception of AICRP on Barley, pure line selections in
the indigenous land races were employed, which resulted in the
development of several barley varieties like NP 13, NP 21 (New Pusa),
C 251, K 12, K 18, K 24 (Kanpur, UP), BR 22 & BR 32 (Sabour, Bihar),
T4, T5, C 138 and C 164 (United Punjab). The All India Coordinated
Barley Improvement Project (AICBIP), involving ICAR and SAU
centers was initiated in 1966-67 to do the collaborative research.
During the IXth five year plan, both barley and wheat coordinated
projects were merged and combined programme was named as “All
India Coordinated Wheat and Barley Improvement Project†in 1997
and this arrangement is being continued since then. Keeping in mind
the priorities as abiotic, biotic stress, dual, malt and food purposes, a
total of 122 barley varieties and 15 genetic stocks, agrotechnologies
and disease and pest management strategies have been developed
from the barley improvement programme and are described in this
review article.