Poster prepared for the LiveSTOCK Exchange event at ILRI, 9-10 November 2011

1. USING DIVERSITY FOR FORAGE DEVELOPMENT
Challenge: How can the forage collection best serve poor smallholder livestock keepers?
Actions to respond to challenge:
Forage germplasm
SAVE STUDY
Germplasm conservation Phenotypic characterization Model or representative forage species
 Medium term orthodox seed storage at 8°C in Addis Ababa selected for research based on:
 Most original collection and long term orrthodoxseed storage at -20 °C in Addis Ababa
Cowpea  Importance as forage or food-feed crop Lablab
 Field genebank for grasses with short-lived seeds or low seed production in Zwai and Debre Zeit
 Safety backup of original collections in Centro Internacional de Agricultura Agronomic evaluation  Link to other work in ILRI
Tropical in Colombia and Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway  Work in partnership and complementary
 Large amount of variation
Diversity assessment  Knowledge gaps Sesbania
Napier grass  Representation in ILRI collection
Monitoring viability during storage
 Legume seeds monitored at 10 year intervals Nutritional evaluation
 Grass seeds monitored at 5 year intervals
 Accessions with low viability scheduled for regeneration
 Germination regimes identified for breaking dormancy Best bet forages Phenotypic characterization
 Morphological characterization using standard descriptors
Seed production
capacity
Monitoring health
 Legume seedlings tested for virus before planting or during growing season Environmental
adaptation Agronomic evaluation
 Napier grass tested for Napier stunt disease after each cut
 Diversity in yield, plant components and adaptation
 Infected plants removed from field
 Disease tolerance and drought traits in Napier
 Virus elimination using thermotherapy and meristem culture Pglaucum3
Pglaucum2
Pglaucum4
 Disease screening for anthracnose for accessions of Stylosanthes once
14982
16902
16835
16834
16840
16838
16621
Hybrids
16783
during storage Diversity assessment
14355
14389
16799
16837
16793
?
 Infected seeds discarded Breeders
14984
15357
 Approaches and molecular methodologies for quantifying variation, developing
16811
16813
16815
16819
16791
16785
16787
lines
16786
core collections, identifying duplicates and confirming taxonomic identity 16789
16792
16795
16798
16800
16801
Southern
Genetic relationship
16803
16806
16804
Africa
Regeneration
16836
16821
and disease 16818
15743
16817
16814
Nutritional evaluation susceptibility between Breeders
 Seeds regenerated for storage when viability or stocks are low
16816
16839
16812
16790
accessions of Napier
16805
16807
lines
 Studies in variation in nutritional parameters
14983
 Disease free seeds of 800 accessions regenerated per year
16788
16794
grass 16782
16810
16784 East
16822
16802
16808
16809
16796
16797
Africa
0.1
susceptible
Productive and adapted
forages for users
Seed production
USE
 Seeds of 60 best bet forages produced to support technology transfer in sub-Saharan Africa
 Selection of forages and action research with farmers
 NARS partners trained in forage management and forage seed production
Outputs:
Forage germplasm Information Capacity
Number of NARS capacity in forage conservation, characterization, research and
Forage accessions conserved, documented and Global catalogue of forage germplasm available to improve access to and support improved
Forage type accessions development strengthened
disseminated according to international standards use and adoption of forages
under the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Grasses 4564 Training manuals on genebank management
Fact sheets on key species Individual graduate training
Resources for Food and Agriculture Herbaceous legumes 10859
Databases, decision support tools and web sites developed for improving conservation, Group training
3000 samples per year distributed free of charge Fodder trees 3517 management and use of forage diversity
for forage research and development worldwide Other forages 270 Knowledge base http://cropgenebank.sgrp.cgiar.org/
Total 19210 Expert knowledge system http://www.tropicalforages.info
Google sites web page http://sites.google.com/site/napiergrassdiseaseresistance/home
Forage crop registry http://icarda-genebank.icarda.cgiar.org/crs/forage/public/
Accession information http://192.156.137.110/forage/frgdsearch.asp
Partners: SGRP, SLP, Bioversity, CIAT, ICARDA, CSIRO, Australia, Rothamsted Research, UK, KARI, Kenya, Donors: World Bank (Global public goods projects), ACIAR, DFID, Forage Diversity
NARO, Uganda, TALIRO, Tanzania, IPMS, EMDTI, MoA and EIAR, Ethiopia ASARECA, Global Crop Diversity Trust Contact: Dr Alexandra Jorge, Email: a.jorge@cgiar.org