Future Generations – Will Any Be Lacking Tropical Forage Genetic Resources?

It’s high time to stop talking about the (forage) plants and talk about the people. Three (Australia, India, USA) of the about a dozen curators of tropical and subtropical forage (TSTF) genetic resources collections involved in developing a Global Strategy on Conservation and Utilization of Tropical and Subtropical Forage Genetic Resources on behalf of the Global Crop Diversity Trust in 2015 have since retired. In all cases their replacements were not expert in this challenging commodity. Why? The commodity is highly diverse and requires understanding of a substantial body of knowledge generated over more than five decades. It requires a level of familiarity with two plant families, grasses and legumes, which comprise a plethora of genera and species. Some of these species, novel to agriculture, have been proven extremely useful for diverse livestock production systems, for environmental services and for people’s livelihoods. Others are rather ‘bycatch’ from early exploration and probably don’t deserve conservation at all, or at least at the highestgenebank standards. Why were there no mentored scientists waiting to take up the vacant positions? There is today a worldwide shortage of applied plant research capability as “–omic sciences” or modelling seem more appealing to emerging scientists. Few budding agricultural scientists want to dedicate their career to a commodity, which mostly ranks low in recognition of its science merits and funding support. At the same time forage science and forages are coming under greater scrutiny because of environmental factors, especially in relation to the impacts livestock production is having on global warming. However, there are emerging scientists wanting to build a career in tropical forage science. Unfortunately, they are often disconnected from similar work around the world, and their own work is insufficiently recognizedby aging, inward-looking institutions that still claim to lead global forage research and development despite the ever declining resources

Rebuilding a Tropical Forages for the Future Network – A Call for Resuscitating Enthusiasm for a Commodity with Great Prospects and Innovation Potential

A series of Forages for the Future newsletters, outlining some of the latest tropical and subtropical forage (TSTF) research and development impacts and expertise, has been published since 2016. Amongst the research highlights were Brazilian scientists’ focus on grasses such as Urochloa, Megathyrsus maximus, Paspalum and Cenchrus purpureus, and on legumes, especially Arachis and Stylosanthes. Argentinian researchers are similarly targeting Acroceras macrum and Setaria sphacelata; while Indian and ILRI (East Africa) researchers are using plant breeding to overcome disease constraints in Napier grass (Cenchrus purpureus and associated hybrids). Also demonstrated were successfully using genetic resources of Desmanthus, Leucaena leucocephala and Macroptilium bracteatum to improve Australian livestock production in varying farming systems on heavy-textured soils. Amongst the most innovative forage-based development outcomes featured in the newsletters were the increasing role of Mucuna pruriens in crop-livestock systems of semi-arid Zimbabwe, and the enabling role that forage grasses and legumes play in the icipe-developed “push-pull”-system to control a range of pests in African maize farming-systems. Some common threads stand out in these impact-delivering programs: longevity and ongoing institutional support, clear end-user focus, deep understanding of species adaptation and their phenotypic diversity and, how various species and ecotypes might be used. These are just some of the successful research-for-development programs taking place across the tropics and subtropics; they provide an opportunity for strengthening TSTF research and development into the future. One missing ingredient is opportunity for teams from national, international centres and from the private sector to meet regularly to exchange results, ideas and challenges. International conferences and similar forums are expensive and too infrequent; but online options offer new communication approaches. The IGC in Nairobi is the perfect opportunity to discuss possible new collaboration forums and, if required, how they might operate to make for a better, well-informed and innovative international TSTF network

Tropical Forage Genetic Resources -- Will Any Be Left for Future Generations?

After very active years of pasture and forage research at major institutes, interest in tropical forage genetic resources has drastically declined. Apparently, the early phases of collecting and evaluation were much more valued than conserving and keeping the germplasm available for future generations. Accumulated data are not easily accessible and, therefore, the knowledge of tropical forage genetic resources is progressively being lost. This worldwide decrease in activity and loss of knowledge is due to declining resources. It is suggested that a global database on tropical forage genetic resources should be established and also that finances be made available to at least maintain collections at their current reduced level

Origin of the World\u27s Collection of the Tropical Forage Legume Chamaecrista Rotundifolia

Round leaf cassia (Chamaecrista rotundifolia) cv. Wynn is an important legume in light textured soils in sub-tropical Queensland and forage evaluators in other regions of the tropics frequently wish to include in their evaluation trials this cultivar plus other accessions which represent the variation in the species. Provenance data of a world collection of 130 accessions of round leaf cassia were examined and a core set of 26 accessions selected

Codariocalyx Gyroides- A New Forage Option for the Humid Tropics

The Southeast Asian shrub legume, Codariocalyx gyroides is adapted to acid, low-fertility soils with poor drainage. Data from 19 RIEPT (International Network for Evaluation of Tropical Pastures) trial sites conducted in the American humid and subhumid tropics were used to define the range of adaptation of C. gyroides. The results show that C. gyroides performs better under high rainfall conditions of the humid tropics with hardly any dry season, and it responds to soil fertility (Ca, P). Future research needs are identified. The release of a commercial cultivar in Colombia is being prepared

The Use of Cafeteria Trials for the Selection of \u3ci\u3eDesmodium ovalifolium\u3c/i\u3e Genotypes

For the selection of tropical legumes which contain anti-nutritive components such as tannins, relative acceptability of genotypes to ruminants is of particular importance, since these plant components may influence selective grazing behaviour and subsequent animal productivity. Plant-animal interactions are not predictable from laboratory analyses. Involving grazing animals through the conduction of relative-acceptability (=cafeteria) trials at early stages of the germplasm selection process might therefore provide a convenient tool to adjust and confirm genotype selection based on laboratory quality analyses data. As part of a multilocational germplasm evaluation project, cafeteria-experiments were conducted at two contrasting environments in Colombia with a core collection of Desmodium ovalifolium, a tropical legume species containing tannins. The objective of these experiments was to assess the usefulness of such acceptability trials in the selection of D. ovalifolium genotypes. Relative acceptability indices for the 18 accessions confirm genotype selection based on a series of laboratory quality analyses during earlier stages of the project and indicate pronounced genotype-environment interactions. Moreover, animal activity profiles confirm the influence of plant-environment-animal interactions and thus the usefulness of cafeteriatrials for germplasm selection projects

GIS and Genetic Diversity- Case Studies in Stylosanthes

We present a new technique for mapping the potential occurrence of wild germplasm based in climate data and show its application to six important Stylosanthes species. The method can be used to develop hypotheses as to the distribution for purposes of collection and/or in situ conservation. It can also be used to investigate genetic diversity with a species. We present some first results based in isozyme data from S. guianensis

Characterizing Feeds and Feed Availability in Sud-Kivu Province, DR Congo

Animal husbandry in the Sud-Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is gradually moving towards stall feeding, due to demographic pressure (Battistin et al. 2009) and scarcity of collectable forages (DSRP-RDC 2005). Therefore, feed is considered one of the main constraints faced by livestock production, especially in the dry season (Katunga et al. 2009; Maass et al. 2012). Unaffordable, fluctuating prices and inaccessibility of feed concentrates and the lack of improved forages adapted to marginal conditions, making them non-competitive with food crops, further exacerbate the livestock feeding situation. This study within the African Food Security Initiative, with funding from AusAID, aimed to assess specific constraints and opportunities in the current feeding systems, as well as feed availability in this area

Determinants of participation in cavy marketing: Evidence from the Democratic Republic of Congo

Smallholder supply chain participation remains low despite the potential welfare gains that would result from choosing a market-oriented production. Yet, studies on determinants of market participation for commodities with underdeveloped value chains are scanty. Employing a double-hurdle model, this paper examines factors determining households’ participation in cavy marketing among cavy farmers from Sud-Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We find that wealthier households participated less in cavy marketing while those producing more cavies were more likely to participate in their marketing. Moreover, smaller households tended to sell more cavies, while households with other livestock sold fewer cavies. The findings underscore the significance of increasing the participation in the cavy supply chains by farmers through the promotion of appropriate husbandry practices that enhance cavy productivity and production and that enable farmers to participate in markets as sellers

A Survey on Continuous Time Computations

We provide an overview of theories of continuous time computation. These theories allow us to understand both the hardness of questions related to continuous time dynamical systems and the computational power of continuous time analog models. We survey the existing models, summarizing results, and point to relevant references in the literature