Growing Food: A Guide to Food Production

Hordeum vulgare

Orge (French); Gerste (German); Cevada (Portuguese); Cebada (Spanish);
Orzo (Italian); Korn (Swedish); Sha’ir (Arabic); Sigem (Tigrinha),
Gebs (Amharic), Garbuu (Oromifa) in Ethiopia; Jau, Jar (Hindi and Dari);

Cultivation of barley probably originated in highland Ethiopia and in Southeast Asia
where it has been cultivated for at least 2000 years. It was the main bread plant of
the Hebrews, Greeks and Romans. It is descended from wild barley (Hordeum
spontaneum), which still grows in the Middle East. Bread made from barley is
unleavened ( flatbread ) due to its low gluten content.
Nowadays barley is the most widely distributed of all the cereals, and grows in
almost all temperate regions as well as in hotter, drier areas such as those found in
North Africa and Ethiopia, and the highland tropics.
The annual global production of barley in 2004 was 154 million MT, about half
of which is produced in Europe; it is the fourth most important cereal after wheat,
rice and maize.
The plant is an annual grass (family Poaceae alt. Gramineae), 50–130 cm tall,
normally with many tillers and almost always with long (7.5–10 cm) awns, which
make the plants look like awned, or

“

bearded

”

, wheat.
There are two main types of barley, which can be cross-pollinated by plant
breeders:

has two rows of seeds, one opposite the other. This type of barley is the favourite for
making beer, though some 2-row barleys are feed types. The average protein content
is 11.5–13%.

seed, producing six rows of seed. This type is normally used for animal food, though
6-row barleys are also used for malting. The average protein content is 12–13.5%

There are both spring and winter varieties of both types. There are also
“intermediate winter-types”, often called “facultative” varieties, such as Secret, that
can be planted either in the autumn or spring, but which are mainly less winter hardy
than the true winter types.
A third type exists and is occasionally cultivated; sometimes called Abyssinian
intermediate or Ethiopian black barley, Hordeum irregulare, has fertile central
florets and varying proportions of fertile and sterile lateral florets.

To Distinguish Barley from Wheat

Barley has long smooth auricles, the leaves have no hairs. Wheat has hairy auricles,
the leaves have very small hairs. Oats do not have auricles:
(“Big and Bare is Barley; Whiskery and Wee is Wheat; Oats have 0”).

2 - r ow (var. distichum)—only the central spikelet develops seed. Each head

6 - r o w (var. hexastichum)—both the central and lateral spikelets develop

a)Examine the Seedling (Young Plant):

107

Barley

Oorbashay (Urbashi)(Pashtu).

GROWING FOOD – THE FOOD PRODUCTION HANDBOOK

A third type exists, 4-row (Hordeum tetrastichum), but is not widely grown.