Sowing period: October to November
Harvesting period: March to April
Crop season: Rabi
Key growing locations for Barley:
- Rajasthan – Jaipur, Alwar, Bikaner, Chittorgarh, Sriganganagar, Hanumangarh, Sikar
- Uttar Pradesh – Agra, Deoria, Kanpur, Lalitpur, Muzaffarnagar, Ghazipur
- Madhya Pradesh – Chhatarpur, Neemuch, Satna, Shivpuri, Tikamgarh
Production trend and Stock position:
- According to Ministry of Agriculture, the sowing acreage of Barley as on January 29, 2021 was 6.84 lakh hectares (lh) down by 12.20 percent compared to 7.79 lh during the corresponding period
- As per the Ministry of Agriculture second advance estimate released on February 24, 2021, Barley production was 1.99 million metric tonnes (MMT) compared to the corresponding year which was 1.72 MMT, up by 15.70 percent
- The top countries producing Barley are Russia, Australia, Canada, Turkey, Ukraine and India ranked 21st in the global Barley Production as per Food & Agriculture organization of the United Nations
Monsoon Update
For the country as a whole, cumulative rainfall during this year’s pre-monsoon season till April 14, 2021 is below Long Period Average (LPA) by 40 percent. Details of the rainfall distribution over the four broad geographical regions of India are given below:
Market commentary: Price outlook
- The Government had increased the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Barley by 4.92 percent to ₹ 1,600 per quintal for marketing year (MY) 2020-21 compared to ₹ 1,525 in 2019-20
- Currently overall spot prices of Barley have been trading above MSP and will have an upward movement in immediate/near term, as there are supply concerns in the domestic market due to the ongoing pandemic restrictions and good demand from the beer industry as per various media sources, which has also been supporting the prices
- Markets are currently in Contango where the Futures prices (month of May contract trading at ₹ 2,002 per quintal as on April 23, 2021) is higher than the Spot market prices ( ₹ 1997 per quintal as on April 23, 2021) at Jaipur location