answers: Russia
context: in recent years. Of China's 617 cities, 300 are facing water shortages. In many, these shortfalls can be filled only by diverting water from agriculture. Farmers cannot compete economically with industry for water in China. China is developing a grain deficit even with the over-pumping of its aquifers. Grain production in China has been said to have peaked in 1998 at 392 million tons, falling below 350 million tons in 2000, 2001, and 2002, although such was 571 million tons in 2011 after eight consecutive years of increase from 2003 to 2011. The annual deficits have been filled by drawing </s> in 2012, due to the efforts of the International Barley Genome Sequencing Consortium and the UK Barley Sequencing Consortium. The genome is composed of seven pairs of nuclear chromosomes (recommended designations: 1H, 2H, 3H, 4H, 5H, 6H and 7H), and one mitochondrial and one chloroplastic chromosome, with a total of 5000 Mbp. Abundant biological information is already freely available in several barley databases. The wild barley ("H. vulgare" ssp." spontaneum") found currently in the Fertile Crescent might not be the progenitor of the barley cultivated in Eritrea and Ethiopia, indicating that separate domestication may have occurred in eastern Africa. In </s> 2016, world production of barley was 141 million tonnes, led by the European Union producing 41% of the world total. Russia, Germany, France, and Ukraine were major producers. 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 Mesopotamia from the
question: country that has the highest in barley production