Report on adjusting a high throughput screening tool to support water use phenotyping in forages

Drought severely limits forage productivity. The avoidance of water deficit by increasing the capacity for water uptake or by controlling water loss are common responses. A fine interplay exists between the acquisition of water by roots in drying soil and water loss through transpiration. These two components tend to act simultaneously. The following approach and aim is therefore to provide information of shoot development, root development and water use over time of plants growing under greenhouse conditions with soil from target sites. Greenhouse studies is a vital part of phenotyping for drought conditions as allow the recording of responses that would be otherwise impossible under filed conditions

Identification of Urochloa humidicola hybrids with waterlogging tolerance and Biological Nitrification Inhibition (BNI) capability

Soil waterlogging (flooding of the soil) is a major limitation to pasture productivity due to the slow diffusion of gases in water that reduces plant growth, as O2 availability in the root zone decreases (Cardoso et al., 2014). Biological nitrification inhibition (BNI) is a process where roots exudate organic substances that inhibit the activity of soil nitrifiers - nitrification (Subbarao et al., 2007, 2009, Nunez et al., 2017). Urochloa humidicola (Uh) is an important forage grass in humid lowland tropics that has been identified and characterized for having good waterlogging tolerance (Keller-Grein et al. 1996; Calisto et al. 2008; Cardoso et al., 2013) and high soil nitrification inhibitory potential (Subbarao et al, 2007; Gopalakrishnan et al., 2007)

Agronomic evaluation of 15 Centrosema sp. accessions in time of maximum and minimum rainfall in Colombia

Much of the tropical livestock sector is managed in extensive grazing systems and in most cases with native and/or naturalized germplasm. Management practices in livestock farms do not only include the rotation of paddocks, adequate periods of occupation and rest, and the pasture areas are competing with other uses for land (e.g., deforestation, crops). That is why it is necessary to introduce new forage germplasm, which adapts to adverse conditions, provides excellent nutritional quality, and allows intensifying livestock systems, freeing areas used for grazing to be used as a reforestation area or for planting crops, among others. The objective of this study was evaluating the agronomic and productive behaviour of a collection of 15 accessions of Centrosema spp. in two climatically contrasting seasons and with three regrowth ages (Cut 1:35, cut 2: 42 and cut 3: 49 days post-cut). According to the information obtained in the study in terms of biomass production of each accession averaging the two climatic seasons, it was found that the accession that presented the best performance in terms of biomass based on dry matter (DM) was CIAT 15474 in the Cut 2. with a forage offer of 7.12 ton DM/ha/cut, surpassing the control (CIAT 15160) that produced 6.55 ton DM/ha/cut. These data indicate that the accession that emerged is a promising option for adoption in livestock systems in Latin America. However, it is recommended to compare the information obtained with the results of other related research in order to identify production niches for it. Likewise it is recommended to conduct studies on seed production and dissemination with producers to facilitate adoption processes