By Our Staff Reporter
Pantnagar, 24 May: A new variety of barley UPB 1106 (Pant Barley 1106) developed by G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, was released by the Central Sub-Committee on Notification of Crop Standards and Release of Varieties for Agricultural Crops of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and it was notified by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India for its cultivation in the plains of twelve states of the country, namely, Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Assam and North Eastern States. JP Jaiswal, coordinator of Wheat and Barley Research Project at the University informed that it took about 12 years to develop this variety. Pant Barley 1106 is a six-row high yielding variety for grain. This variety performed excellently in the trials conducted at various test centres across the country by ICAR-Indian Wheat and Barley Research Institute, Karnal. This six-row barley variety has given 19.94% and 10.32% higher yield, respectively than the popular varieties, HUB 113 and DWRB 137 in the North-Eastern States of the country. This variety is resistant to brown and yellow rust and has shown better resistance to blight, an important disease of barley. Also, UPB 1106 is lodging tolerant, which is a desirable characteristic to realize the yield potential in farmers’ field. In quality analysis, UPB 1106 showed better protein content (12.3%) than the check varieties, DWRB 137 (11.2%) and HUB 113 (11.7%) and also met other quality standards. This variety will prove to be helpful in increasing barley production under timely sown irrigated conditions in the North Eastern Plains of the country.
Barley is well known for its nutritional content. It is a whole grain rich in soluble fiber, especially beta-glucan, which has been proven to be helpful in reducing body fat and controlling weight. Beta-glucan increases the feeling of fullness, slows digestion and enhances insulin sensitivity, thereby contributing to weight loss and better metabolic health. Multi-grains have gained popularity in which barley is an important ingredient and it also has an important role in the control of diabetes. Hence, UPB 1106 bears relevance. The UPB 1106 (Pant Barley 1106) variety will not only increase the production of barley but its nutrients contained will also prove to be helpful in increasing health benefits.
This variety has been developed by scientists of the Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding of the University, namely, JP Jaiswal, Swati and Anil Kumar. The Vice Chancellor of the University, Manmohan Singh Chauhan, Director Research, AS Nain and Dean Agriculture, Subhash Chandra congratulated the scientists for developing this variety.
