Enhancing use of forage diversity

摘要

In addition to providing feeds, forages have a key role in enhancing natural assets through positive effects on soil fertility, increasing ground cover with associated benefits (biodiversity, carbon sequestration) for improving system resilience. They are an important land use strategy for marginal lands and steep slopes that are not suitable for crop production. Despite the recognised benefits of using forages as part of sustainable production systems, a-doption has been limited. It is currently estimated that about 5 million hectares of forage legumes and more than 42 million hectares of forage grasses are grown in the tropics. The forage germplasm maintained in the public domain as global public goods is an essential resource for identification of more productive genotypes and maintenance of diversity in forage/pasture ecosystems. This germplasm and related information that are held in the public domain are freely available as part of a rational global system of genetic resources conservation and sustainable use. Constraints to wider use of forages include limited availability of and access to quality seeds of a range of adapted varieties and lack of information about the diversity and adaptation available in global collections. Morphological charactarization and use of biotechnology and GIS tools to identify traits of importance for use as feeds and environmental adaptation will allow scientists to identify genotypes that have potential as livestock feed. It also allows them to find rational ways to conserve essential forage biodiversity for current and future generations as global public goods.