Millets Vs Barley

Be it alcoholic beverages - the fermented beers or malted whiskeys, be it the non-alcoholic food items like Barley porridge or water or breads, Barley is a major cereal grain that touches almost every age group with its variations.

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), is also used as animal fodder. It is used in soups and stews, and in barley bread of various cultures. Barley grains are commonly made into malt in a traditional and ancient method of preparation. No wonder this cereal crop is one of the most produced grain in the world.

Barley is a widely adaptable crop. It is currently popular in temperate areas where it is grown as a summer crop and tropical areas where it is sown as a winter crop. Its germination time is one to three days. Barley grows under cool conditions, but is not particularly winter hardy. Barley is more tolerant of soil salinity than wheat, which might explain the increase of barley cultivation in many parts of the world. Barley has a short growing season and is also relatively drought tolerant.

I can certainly hear the murmurs of many of friends who drink Barley, as they smirk and think "Who is bothered about the nutritive part of barley".. Ye, lets look at the nutritive content of Barley.

• Barley contains decent levels of protein, calcium and phosphorus though lower than most of the millets.
• Barley stands out in the digestive fibre content which is highest among the millets, Oats, Rice and Wheat. At the same time barley also contains as much carbohydrate as rice.

Barley was always considered as a health food across the globe as it offers decent levels of nutrition, good amounts of carbohydrates for growing children and digestive fibre.

But let me list the reasons why I find Millets to be superior to Barley:

• Finger Millet contains nearly 12 times calcium than that in Barley, Proso, Foxtail, barnyard, Pearl and Soghum - all these millets have more Protein than barley.
• Barnyard and Pearl millets contains more than 6 times Iron than Barley and all the millets contain good quantities of Thiamin (Vitamin B1) while Barley has negligible quantities.

1. Barley occupies 0.46% of the total cropped area, 0.62% of the food grains and 0.76% of the cereals in the country. Similarly it contributes 0.86 of the total production of cereals and 0.81% of the food grains in India. There has been steady shortfall in the area and production of the crop since 1960-61 onward with the beginning of the Green Revolution. 

2. The production has fallen down from 28.66 lakh tones in 1960-61 to 14.06 lakh tones in 2002-03 at an average annual rate of 1.21 per cent. This decline is mainly due to the transfer of the barley area to wheat cultivation. Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan are the two ma­jor producers of barley in the country. These two states together provide 64 per cent of the total area and 72 per cent of the total production of barley in India. Barley is essentially a crop of North India.

3. The top 5 Barley producers globally are Germany, France, Ukraine, Russia and Spain.

4. So the first objection I have for consuming Barley is, it does not benefit a large section of India or Indian farmers. It certainly takes care of the 2 states in India but when we buy millets we really support our own farmers who are dependent on ~50% of rain fed Indian agricultural landscape. Why should I buy something manufactured by farmers in EU and Russia when our own farmers produce equivalently / more nutritive food. Read more here. 

5. The cost of a Kg of Barley is about INR 35/- to 45/-. Compare this against Millets which costs anywhere between INR 30/- to 70/-. Though the cost is almost similar the nutrition value of Millets is much higher.

6. My last objection is based on the importance of alignment of our lifestyle with nature. We need to submit that nature is super intelligent and wise in endowing capabilities in all of us and bless us with the right environment. If nature wanted Barley to nourish the people of India it would have endowed India with a large scale ability to grow Barley.

There is an unwritten rule among the wise "To consume what grows near you" and that is the best way to align with nature.

Hence eating Millets is better for Indians as they would support millions of small farmers and their produce and not remit their breakfast / dinner bills to foreign countries. Millets are cost effective and its value for money is unmatched. Also by eating Millets you align better with nature. There are recipes which are available in the net which suggests mixing Wheat, millets and barley in some proportion to make the whole meal healthy and nutritive. This could be one of the ways to ensure that we eat a balanced diet.

These are my thoughts and I leave it to your wisdom to decide what is best for you.

Article by Rags Gopalan...