Parameters of breeding barley for yield and quality

Abstract

With a total of around 180 million ha worldwide, barley is in fourth place in the world crop production and is therefore a significant product in the marketing of agricultural commodities. In Serbia, the area sown to this crop is about 125,000 hectares and rising. Using breeding and adequate production technologies, domestic barley growers are trying to provide barley that will meet the demands of the malt and beer industry and livestock feed plants in terms of yield and quality. The environmental conditions in Serbia are specific precipitation- and temperature-wise, so a barley genotype needs to be bred whose dynamics of growth and development will be best adapted to the growing conditions in question. The present paper discusses the basic parameters of barley yield and quality and the possibility of their improvement by breeding. The 1000-kernel weight is a highly important parameter in breeding malting barley for yield and technological quality. Malting barley should have a lower protein content, forage barley a higher one, while the levels of beta-glucans should be as low as possible in both types. Malting barley should produce malt with a high extract content and a good level of cytolytic, proteolytic, and amilolytic degradation. As a high a resistance to prevalent diseases and stress conditions as possible is also advantageous to any high-yielding, high-quality cultivar of barley.

Sa oko 80 miliona hektara u svetskoj biljnoj proizvodnji ječam zauzima četvrto mesto i predstavlja značajan elemenat u marketingu poljoprivrednih proizvoda. U Srbiji se gaji na oko 125 000 hektara sa trendom povećanja zasejanih površina. Oplemenjivanjem i odgovarajućom tehnologijom proizvodnje nastoji se obezbediti ječam koji prinosom i kvalitetom zadovoljava industriju slada i piva i fabrike stočne hrane. Pošto su ekološki uslovi Srbije specifični u odnosu na padavine i temperature, potrebno je selekcionisati genotip ječma koji će svojom dinamikom razvoja i rasta biti najbolje prilagođen uslovima proizvodnje. U radu su istaknuti osnovni parametri prinosa i kvaliteta ječma, kao i mogućnost njihovog poboljšanja oplemenjivanjem. U oplemenjivanju pivskog ječma na prinos i tehnološki kvalitet masa hiljadu zrna predstavlja veoma važan parametar. Pivski ječam treba da ima manji a stočni veći sadržaj proteina, dok sadržaj b-glukana kod obe forme treba da je što niži. Pivski ječam treba da obezbedi slad sa visokim sadržajem ekstrakta, dobre citolitičke, proteolitičke i amilolitičke razgrađenosti. Što veći nivo otpornosti prema prevalentnim bolestima i uslovima stresa predstavljaju prednost za svaku visokoprinosnu i kvalitetnu sortu ječma.