Development of NIRS re-calibration model for Ethiopian barley (Hordeum vulgare) lines traits to determine their brewing potential.

Barley is one of the top five grain crops in Ethiopia, covering approximately 1 million hectares, and is grown for food, animal's feed and industrial purposes. Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute (EIAR) is also conducting a barley research and breeding program with the aim of improving grain yield and resilience through screening lines. Sample materials used for the experiment were taken from 2018, 2019 and 2020 seasons to capture the variation in the growing year. As a result, the spectral data of the samples and the wet chemical data were generated using official international methods. Subsequently, a recalibration based on 280 samples of breeding lines of different genotypes, growing years and locations was developed in order to predict the protein, extract and friability content characteristics of important barley malt parameters. Wet chemical data were collected from processed/malted barley grains. A calibration model was created on the basis of the calibration software...