Scientists of the SPC GF included 8 varieties of barley in the State Register of breeding achievements of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2022

  Barley is one of the oldest agricultural crops. Due to its high adaptability to various environmental conditions, barley is cultivated in almost all parts of the world. The grown barley grain, due to its versatility, is used for food, technical and feed purposes. Barley and pearl barley, flour, a tonic coffee drink are made from it, it is used in the production of beer and kvass, various varieties of whiskey, for medical and cosmetic purposes, it is widely used for feed for farm animals, being a valuable concentrated feed, malt extracts are used in the leather and textile industries.

  Barley is widely used in medicine as a cleansing agent. Barley water increases lactation, and in case of fevers it is able to alleviate the patient’s condition due to its moisturizing and cooling effect. With the help of barley malt, kidney and bladder diseases are treated. The same remedy is indispensable for skin rashes and furunculosis due to its ability to have a beneficial effect on metabolism.

  Barley porridges and soups are useful for overweight people. Due to the fiber content in the cereal, intestinal peristalsis is stimulated, and food is digested faster and easier in the gastrointestinal tract. In recent years, the production of cereals from cereals of various agricultural crops, including pearl barley, has become widespread, which are used to make breakfast cereals, porridges, soups, baking mixes and baby food.

  The grain of this crop is rich in carbohydrates (65-68%), protein (7-18%), fat (2.1%), ash (1.5-2.5%) and fiber (3-5%).

  Barley protein contains substances such as tocotrienol (fat-soluble vitamin E) and triglyceride (fat), which have a beneficial effect on blood and blood vessels, reducing cholesterol levels. In terms of beta-glucan content, barley grain is significantly superior to other food crops. Medicine has convincingly proved that this component plays a positive role in the prevention of atherosclerosis. Barley antioxidant alpha-tocopherol inhibits the development of cancer.

  The main amount of barley grain grown is used for fodder purposes. Higher-protein varieties of barley are used for fodder. Due to its high feed qualities, barley grain and its processed products are much more nutritious than other concentrated feeds. If we talk about feed values, then by these indicators barley is significantly superior to wheat. So, 1 kg of grain contains 1.2 feed units and 100 grams of digestible protein. Barley grain protein is represented by a balanced set of amino acids, including methionine, tryptophan and lysine. Due to its valuable composition, regular feeding of barley grain has a beneficial effect on animal health, normalizes metabolic processes and promotes better development of the body, accelerates growth, increases fertility and target productivity of farm animals.

  It is a highly productive, precocious, drought-resistant and cold-resistant crop.

  Barley seeds can be sown early, because it germinates already at a temperature of 1-2 ⁰C below zero. Seedlings are even able to tolerate short-term frosts. Barley is also resistant to high temperatures. Among the early spring crops, this one is the most drought-resistant. Barley is quite unpretentious, but it is better to sow it in fertile soils, since the roots of this plant have relatively weak assimilation ability and absorb mineral nutrition in a very short time.

In areas with unfavorable soil and climatic conditions for growing crops, a sufficiently high level of yield is largely determined by the resistance of the variety to them. It is very important to have varieties with an optimal growing season. For northern areas and areas with frequent summer droughts, precocious varieties are needed.

  At the present stage, the increasing demand for feed, raw materials for the food and brewing industry poses challenges for the creation of highly productive, resistant to biotic and abiotic stress barley varieties capable of forming high grain yields with good quality.

  In addition, the varieties of the XXI century should be energy-saving, environmentally sustainable biological systems. The most important property that should be given to varieties is adaptability.

  The creation of highly productive varieties adapted to the soil and climatic conditions of Northern Kazakhstan is the main direction of breeding works of «SPC GF named after A.I. Barayev» LLP.

  The initial work with grain forage crops was laid by the breeder Kuzmin V.P., in 1935-1937 at the former Shortandinsky experimental station.

  In 1962, the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Grain Farming established the Department of grain crops breeding, the main research directions of which were the formation of new genetic resources of grain crops, the creation of highly productive ecologically plastic varieties of barley for fodder and food purposes for the conditions of Kazakhstan.

  The successful result in breeding depends on the collection material with the corresponding valuable quantitative characteristics, which contributes to the expansion of the genetic basis of the varieties being created. In the process of studying the collection, valuable source material is allocated, which is subsequently used as a donor in breeding programs to create new high-yielding, high-quality, disease- and pest-resistant varieties.

  To create new varieties of barley, the breeding process involves the material of the world collection of the VIR (All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources named after N.I. Vavilov), varieties and hybrids of countries near and far abroad.

  During the period from 1962 to 2022, 15 varieties of barley were created and transferred to the State variety testing.

  The State Register of Breeding Achievements of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2022 includes 8 barley varieties: Tselinnyi 91, Astana 2000, Pamyati Raisy, Tselinnyi golozernyi, Tselinnyi 2005, Sabir, Tselinnyi 60, Astana 17. Barley varieties: Tselinnyi 91, Tselinnyi 2005 and Sabir are valuable in grain quality. The barley Pamyati Raisy and Astana 17 are fodder varieties.

  Astana 2000 is a medium–ripened variety, high-yielding, soft, responsive to moisture, drought-resistant, resistant to lodging, to the defeat of dusty smut, weakly affected by hard smut.

  Tselinnyi 2005 is a medium–ripened variety, drought-resistant, resistant to all types of smut diseases, hidden-stem pests.

  Sabir is a medium–ripened variety, drought-resistant, responsive to moisture, resistant to hard smut, Swedish barley fly.

  Tselinnyi golozerny is a medium–ripened variety, drought-resistant, resistant to dusty smut, high-protein.

  Tselinnyi 60 is a medium–ripened variety, high-yielding, drought-resistant, resistant to pests, has high technological cultivation.

  Tselinnyi 91 is a medium–ripened variety, drought-resistant, slightly susceptible to hard and dusty smut.

Pamyati Raisy is a medium–ripened variety, drought-resistant, responsive to moisture, resistant to dusty smut, shedding.

  Astana 17 is a medium–ripened variety, drought-resistant, does not lie down in conditions of sufficient moisture, is resistant to stem fleas and is slightly susceptible to dusty smut.

  For the period 2019-2022 in the regions of the republic, the sown areas of Barley cultivation varieties breeded by «SPC GF named after A.I. Barayev» LLP amounted to: 1106.346 thousand hectares in Akmola region, 833.303 thousand hectares in the North Kazakhstan region, 118.171 thousand hectares in Pavlodar region, 42.773 thousand hectares in Kostanay region, 3.485 thousand hectares in the East Kazakhstan region thousand hectares and Karaganda region 1.314 thousand hectares. The most popular and most in demand variety is Astana 2000, which for 2019-2022 was sown on an area of 1485.117 thousand hectares.

  The process of creating a new promising breeding material of barley in the «SPC GF named after A.I. Barayev» LLP is currently ongoing.

Yuzyuk A.V., research assistant of SPC GF named after A.I. Barayev