23 Jun Post Harvest Management in Barley.
Barley is one of the world’s most important cereal crops after wheat, maize, and rice. It occupies fourth rank in the world. Barley was mainly cultivated and used for human food supply in ancient times but now-a-days it is significantly grown for animal feed and malt products. Barley is predominantly consumed as food crop in the semi-arid regions of Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Tunisia), Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Syria), highlands of Nepal, Ethiopia and Tibet, Andean countries of South America (Peru and Chile) and in some Asian counties (China, North Korea and Himalaya). In India, it is staple food of the northern hills people and also used for food and feed purposes in other plain parts of the country as Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. Among cereals, barley is most preferred for malt, as its husk protecting the coleoptiles (acrospire) during germination process and provides aid in filtration, firm texture of grains and its amylases activity makes it unique for malt recovery. In context of the nutritional values barley grains have higher soluble dietary fibre and lower low density lipoprotein (LDL) content than that of wheat. Soluble fibre has a cholesterol lowering property and LDL cholesterol is the fraction associated with increased risk...