Hulless barley for healthy living & crop diversification

These days when at least one person in the family is suffering from some disease or the other like obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure or heart disease, growing hulless barley may prove beneficial for health and help farmers with crop diversification as well.

Food with nutritional and pharmaceutical value is a way to healthy living. Barley is known for its pharmaceutical value due to the presence of a high amount of ß-glucan content. The ß-glucan is a soluble dietary fibre that has an important role in preventing and reducing heart disease, Type-2 diabetes, high blood pressure, colorectal cancer and regulation of blood cholesterol, said Dr Simarjit Kaur of the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Punjab Agricultural University.

Farmers can grow this pharmaceutical crop for human consumption and earn monetary benefits by marketing high ß-glucan rich hulless food barley.

The cultivation of hulless barley can significantly contribute to crop diversification in Punjab as well as in India for sustainable agriculture, said Dr Maninder Kaur from the same department.

Barley grain can be consumed roasted or in the form of dalia while barley flour can be used to prepare chapati mixed with wheat flour, biscuits and breads. In India, barley is used as ‘sattu’ because of its cooling effects on the human body and ‘missi roti’ for its better nutritional quality.

The marketing of various products prepared from ß-glucan rich hulless barley may generate employment opportunities for youth. Consumption of ß-glucan rich barley will promote healthy living among human beings and farmers may also get better returns from barley cultivation.

Hulless barley variety PL891

The PAU has developed a hulless barley variety PL891 which has ß-glucan content of 4.0-6.0 per cent in barley grain. It is a two-rowed hulless food barley variety possessing 12 per cent protein content. It matures in 144 days. The optimum sowing time for barley is October 15 to November 15. The average grain yield of this variety is 16.8 quintals/acre, said Dr Hari Ram, from the Department of Agronomy.

Food Products of PL891

For consumption of hulless barley as food, products such as multi-grain flour, sattu, dalia, roasted barley and biscuits can be prepared. These food products can be prepared with 30 per cent barley flour and 70 per cent wheat flour. Roasted barley flour can be used to prepare the most popular barley drink ‘sattu’ in North India.