Disease
Yellow rust
Signs · Yellow powdery stripes on leaves in cool, humid weather from January.
Manage · Grow resistant varieties. At first appearance spray propiconazole or another recommended fungicide, as per label / your KVK.
All crops
Cereal · Poaceae (grass family)
Barley
Jau · जौ · Hordeum vulgare
Hardy grain for saline soils and short water — and the base of malt.
Barley needs less water and fertiliser than wheat and tolerates saline and alkaline soils better. It is grown for food, cattle feed and malt for industry. In Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh it does well on fields where wheat struggles.
- Sowing
- 25 Oct – 20 Nov
- Harvest
- 25 Mar – 20 Apr
- Duration
- 120–135 days
- Yield
- 14–20 q/acre
- 35–50 q/ha
Grain filling · roots shown through the soil
At a glance
Barley in one look
Likes cool, dry weather. More tolerant of drought and mild salinity than wheat, but frost at flowering and hot winds at grain filling still hurt.
Sowing time
25 Oct – 20 Nov
Harvest
25 Mar – 20 Apr
120–135 days from sowing
Temperature
12–25 °C to grow
18–22 °C at sowing
Soil
Sandy loam to loam; grows on light soils too
pH 6.5–8.5
Seed rate
34–40 kg/acre
85–100 kg/ha
Spacing
22.5 cm rows
4–5 cm deep
Irrigations
2–4
3 critical stages
Yield
14–20 q/acre
35–50 q/ha
Season
AugSepOctNovDecJanFebMarAprMayJun
Grown most inRajasthanUttar PradeshMadhya PradeshHaryanaPunjabBiharUttarakhand
Tolerates moderately saline and alkaline soils better than wheat. Avoid waterlogged fields.
Seed to harvest
Watch barley grow, stage by stage
Scroll through the season. The plant in the glass tank grows to each stage — roots and all — and every card says what the crop is doing and what you should do in the field that week.
Stage 1 of 8
Sowing
Day 0–4
- 1Day 0–4
Sowing
Seed takes up moisture and swells.
Your job · Sow treated seed in moist soil, 4–5 cm deep, with basal fertiliser.
- 2Day 5–9
Germination
Roots push down and the first leaf breaks through the soil.
Your job · Check stand; re-sow large gaps quickly.
- 3Day 10–25
Seedling
Three to four leaves form and crown roots begin.
Your job · Keep the field weed-free; plan the first irrigation.
- 4Day 26–50
Tillering
Several side shoots form from the base.
Your job · First irrigation at about 30 days with the rest of the nitrogen. Hoe or spray for weeds.
- 5Day 51–65
Jointing
Stems lengthen and the young ear grows inside.
Your job · Watch for yellow rust and aphids.
- 6Day 66–80
Ear emergence and flowering
Long-awned ears come out and flower.
Your job · Irrigate at ear emergence. Remove smutted ears in a bag.
- 7Day 81–110
Grain filling
Grains fill from milky to doughy to firm.
Your job · One light irrigation at milk stage if the soil is dry.
- 8Day 111–130
Maturity
The whole plant turns golden, awns become brittle and ears bend down.
Your job · Harvest promptly — over-dry ears break off and grains shatter.
The seed
Good seed is half the harvest
Use certified seed of a variety bred for your region, at the right rate, and treat it before sowing.
One grain
≈ 8 mm
Seed rate
34–40 kg/acre
85–100 kg/ha
1000-seed weight
—
Recommended varieties
DWRB 137Feed and food barley for timely sown irrigated fields of the north-western plains.
DWRB 101Malt barley with good malting quality for irrigated timely sowing.
DWRB 123Malt barley for the north-western plains.
PL 891PAU hull-less (naked) barley — grains thresh free of the husk, good for food use.
BH 902HAU feed barley for Haryana and neighbouring areas.
Seed treatment
- 1Treat seed with a carboxin + thiram or tebuconazole seed dressing against covered smut, loose smut and stripe disease, as per label / your KVK.
- 2In termite areas use a recommended insecticidal seed dressing, as per label / your KVK.
Field & sowing
Prepare the land, then sow at the right gap and depth
Line sowing with a seed drill
Layout
Flat beds
Row to row
22.5 cm
Plant to plant
—
Depth
4–5 cm
Land preparation
- 1Plough once and give 2 harrowings followed by planking for a fine, firm seedbed.
- 2Give a pre-sowing irrigation if the soil is dry.
- 3On saline fields, level the land well so water spreads evenly and salts do not collect in patches.
Sowing, step by step
- 1Sow in moist soil with a seed-cum-fertiliser drill in rows 22.5 cm apart.
- 2Keep seed 4–5 cm deep.
- 3For late sowing (December) raise seed rate by about 25 % and use rows 18–20 cm apart.
- 4Malt barley is usually grown on contract — use the variety the buyer asks for.
Feeding the crop
How much fertiliser, and when
These are the standard doses for a medium-fertility field. Your Soil Health Card can raise or lower them — test first, then feed.
Nutrient dose
Nitrogen (N)24 kg/acre · 60 kg/ha
Phosphorus (P₂O₅)12 kg/acre · 30 kg/ha
Potassium (K₂O)8.1 kg/acre · 20 kg/ha
Plus 8 t/ha (3.2 t/acre) of well-rotted farmyard manure or compost.
When to apply
- 1Follow your Soil Health Card where available.
- 2At sowing: half the nitrogen with full phosphorus and potash, drilled in the rows.
- 3Remaining half nitrogen with the first irrigation (about 30 days).
- 4Do not overdo nitrogen in malt barley — it raises grain protein and spoils malting quality.
Micronutrients, sulphur & biofertilisers
- 1On zinc-deficient soils apply 25 kg/ha zinc sulphate at sowing.
Bags for your field
For 1 acre of Barley
What to buy
Urea
1
bag · 42 kg
DAP
0.5
bags · 26 kg
MOP
0.5
bags · 13 kg
Nutrients in it: N 24 kg · P₂O₅ 12 kg · K₂O 8.1 kg
Also add farmyard manure or compost: 3.2 t
- Don't put it all in at once: follow the timing on the Barley page.
- Your Soil Health Card can raise or lower these amounts. If you have one, follow it.
- Using SSP, NPK complexes or gypsum instead changes these amounts; the nutrient dose is what matters.
Not yet checked against a package of practices. Confirm the dose with your KVK before you buy.
Urea has 46 % N; DAP 18 % N and 46 % P₂O₅; MOP 60 % K₂O. Urea comes in 45 kg bags, DAP and MOP in 50 kg.
Water
2–4 irrigations — never miss the critical ones
A crop forgives a late irrigation at some stages and punishes it at others. These are the days that decide yield.
Day 30
Day 65
Day 90
SowingDay 135
Critical irrigations
- Day 30Active tillering
- Day 65Ear emergence / flowering
- Day 90Milk stage
Watering tips
- 1Barley does well with fewer irrigations than wheat; 2–3 well-timed ones are usually enough.
- 2Over-irrigation causes lodging and yellowing.
- 3On saline soils, irrigate lightly but more often so salts don't rise to the root zone.
Protection
Weeds, pests and diseases to watch for
Walk the field every week. Most problems are cheap to stop early and expensive to fix late. For any spray, follow the label dose and check with your KVK.
Disease
Stripe disease
Signs · Long yellow then brown stripes along leaves; leaves split and plants stay stunted with poor ears. Spread through seed.
Manage · Use treated, certified seed and pull out early affected plants.
Disease
Covered and loose smut
Signs · Ears filled with black spore masses — held inside a membrane in covered smut, blown away as loose powder in loose smut.
Manage · Seed treatment with a systemic fungicide; remove smutted ears in a bag before they burst.
Disease
Leaf blight / net blotch
Signs · Brown spots or net-like brown patterns on leaves that join and dry the leaf, mostly in humid spells.
Manage · Use resistant varieties and clean seed; spray a recommended fungicide such as propiconazole if it spreads fast, as per label / your KVK.
Pest
Aphids
Signs · Green aphid colonies on leaves and ears in January–March with sticky honeydew.
Manage · Natural enemies usually manage them. Spray a recommended insecticide only if colonies are heavy on the ears, as per label / your KVK.
Pest
Termites
Signs · Plants dry in patches in light soils and pull out easily with eaten roots.
Manage · Use rotted manure only, irrigate on time and treat seed in termite-prone fields.
Weeds
Common · Gulli danda (Phalaris minor), wild oat, bathua, senji, krishna neel
- 1One hoeing 25–30 days after sowing in line-sown crops.
- 2Use only herbicides labelled for barley (for example pinoxaden for grassy weeds, 2,4-D or metsulfuron for broadleaf weeds) — some wheat herbicides injure barley. As per label / your KVK.
Harvest
Harvest on time, dry it well, store it safe
A good crop gives
14–20q/acre
35–50 quintal per hectare
Straw is a useful cattle feed.
When is it ready?
- 1Plants turn golden yellow and ears bend over.
- 2Grains are hard and awns become dry and brittle.
Harvesting
- 1Harvest with a combine or by sickle as soon as the crop is ripe.
- 2Thresh dried bundles with a thresher; hull-less barley threshes clean like wheat.
After harvest & storage
- 1Dry grain to about 12 % moisture before storage.
- 2Malt barley must be clean, bold and undamaged — avoid broken and weathered grain.
- 3Store in clean, dry bins; protect from storage insects as for wheat.
Golden rules for barley
- 1Use barley on saline or water-short fields where wheat gives poor returns.
- 2Keep nitrogen moderate, especially for malt barley.
- 3Use only barley-safe herbicides.
- 4Harvest on time to avoid ear breakage and shattering.