GLOBAL STRATEGY FOR CONSERVATION & UTILISATION OF TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL FORAGES Issue 7 – June 2018 Forages for the Future IN THIS ISSUE IN THIS ISSUE Another year of implementing the Global Continue building community Strategy for the Conservation and Utilisation Another focus for 2018 is to plan for a of Tropical and Sub-Tropical Forage Genetic meeting for national and international Resources is rapidly advancing. After having genebank scientists. That meeting will lots of interactions with the national systems provide an opportunity for the key national in 2017, we will strongly focus on progressing and international genebanks to meet (few implementation with the two CGIAR centers have ever met each other face-to-face) and now, and hope to bring the national and work out options for closer collaboration. international centers together in a small Over the course of the last few years, many workshop in early 2019. suggestions have been put forward on how individual genebanks would benefit from Making collaboration happen working more closely with others. Examples South African grass in Argentina The closer collaboration with the CGIAR include options for rescuing important The grass Acroceras macrum is native to South Africa centers was kicked off in a meeting of a germplasm that has been lost from some handful of people from ILRI, CIAT and the and shows great promise for wet soils in Argentina, centers and collaborative work on where 174 hybrids were produced by crossing. Global Crop Diversity Trust taking place in characterization of important species. ILRI’s new genebank building in April this Page 3 year (p. 4). It was the first meeting with ILRI’s The tentative timing for February 2019 is to new forage genebank manager, Alieu Sartie take the opportunity for the genebank (p. 4), after Jean Hanson’s retirement (p. 2). managers to meet with the team who is upgrading the Tropical Forages Database This meeting has already been followed up (p. 6). One of the aims of this new version of by ILRI’s Chris Jones and Alieu Sartie visiting the Database is to fabricate a product that CIAT headquarters in Cali, Colombia in early can be embedded into day-to-day genebank June 2018. Hosted by colleagues from the management and, especially, in the need to Genetic Resources Program, they have ensure genebanks provide the most visited CIAT’s genebank and some field sites appropriate forage species and ecotypes/ to help build their understanding of the cultivars to users. We think this is more likely systems and processes that CIAT has in place to happen if the key people have actually for their forage germplasm collection as part met each other. of the strategy to bring both of their forage collections under a joint management We wish you happy reading with yet another Push-pull system in eastern Africa system. They have also visited colleagues in diverse issue of this newsletter! Mulato brachiaria and Greenleaf desmodium are used in CIAT’s Tropical Forages Program to discuss this smart technology putting agrobiodiversity to work. how they can work more closely together in the area of forage plant breeding. Brigitte Maass & Bruce Pengelly Page 7 FORAGES FOR THE FUTURE | Issue 7 2 PRIORITIZING LEGUMES & GRASSES Jean Hanson What is herbage? Recipient of the inaugural It is interesting to read recent forage articles that refer Crop Trust Legacy Award to assessing forage dry matter (DM) yield/production. Most of them now use the term ‘biomass yield’ instead “In the early days of her career, Jean Hanson of ‘herbage yield’. This was an unconscious notion, I often wondered what the future would hold had. But after searching in Google Scholar—and every and where her career path would take her.…” search, I made sure that at least one of the words “forage, fodder, pasture, feed, or forraje” would This is how a comprehensive article by the appear—I could prove my idea. Since the 1990’s, Crop Trust starts. Here, we present some Jean Hanson at the ‘biomass’ seems to be much more preferred. parts from the full article about Jean Hanson, Svalbard Global Seed Vault the retiring leader of the ILRI Forage Diversity Project. Not only do they require a strong foundation Jean even retired twice from ILRI! She retired in science and exceptional organizational at the end of 2010 after 24 years with this skills, they need to be financially shrewd, CGIAR center. After a few years as a politically savvy and capable of seeing the big consultant, in 2014, ILRI asked her to return picture while also attending to the details. to her previous role as project leader on forage genetic resources until they recruited Jean’s scientific contributions over the last a new leader. And that temporary position 40 years have earned her international turned out to last four years, until her final respect and recognition among the crop retirement from ILRI in 2018. conservation community. During the celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the Jean is a graduate from the University of Svalbord Global Seed Vault (see p. 4), on Birmingham, UK, where she did her MSc in 25 Feb 2018, the Crop Trust bestowed its genetic resources conservation and her PhD ‘Legacy Award’ on Jean Hanson along with in seed longevity during storage. After six other distinguished scientists, for stations as a postdoctoral scientist at dedicating her career to forage conservation. CIMMYT in Mexico in the mid-1970’s, and as a technical advisor in Indonesia and with the Extracted (incl. photos) largely from Jean Hanson: International Plant Genetic Resources Building the next generation of genebank managers and modified by BL Maass So what is herbage and what herbage yield? And don’t Institute (IPGRI; now Bioversity scientists have use for this term anymore? International) in Rome in the early 1980’s, According to an internationally agreed terminology, she arrived at ILRI (then known as the ‘forage’ consists of “Edible parts of plants… that can International Livestock Centre for Africa— provide feed for grazing animals or that can be harvested ILCA) in Ethiopia in 1986 to become the for feeding”; this includes browse, herbage and mast. As forage genebank manager. Three years later Abbreviations & Acronyms part of forage, ‘herbage’ is “The above-ground biomass of she was leading ILRI’s project on forage ACIAR Australian Centre for International herbaceous plants, other than separated grain; grasses, genetic resources and remained in that grass-like species, herbaceous legumes and other forbs Agricultural Research collectively; the foliage and edible stems of herbs.” position until her first retirement in 2010. Africa RISING Africa Research in Sustainable Biomass, on the other hand, “can include both forage Intensification for the next Generation and non-forage vegetation” (all quotations from Allen et APG Australian Pastures Genebank al. 2011). ARC Agricultural Research Council, South Africa ARS Agricultural Research Station Herbage is, thus, different from general (aboveground) CGIAR Consultative Group on International biomass in that it has to do with accessibility and Agricultural Research acceptability, meaning edibility of the biomass for the CIAT Centro International de Agricultura animal. Tropical cv. Cultivar – registered, commercial variety Does today’s non-use of ‘herbage’ reflect that there are GIZ German Agency for International Cooperation less forage scientists in the world? Or is it just an old- IBONE Botanical Institute of the Northeast, Arg. 1987: Jean with trainees in forage seed production fashioned term that is not needed anymore in forage icipe International Centre for Insect Physiology science? and Ecology One of her utmost concerns has been ILRI International Livestock Research Institute Brigitte Maass mentoring and supporting countless people ILSSI Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation around the world in order to help build the INTA National Inst. of Agric. Technol., Argentina capacity of the next generation. NEA Northeast Argentina Reference: Allen VG, Batello C, Berretta EJ, Hodgson J, R&D Research and development Kothmann M, Li X, McIvor J, Milne J, Morris C, Peeters A & Many changes in the past decades have TSTF Tropical and Sub-Tropical Forages Sanderson M 2011 An international terminology for grazing lands and grazing animals. Grass and Forage Science 66(1):2-28. meant that genebank managers have had to USAID US Agency for International Development develop an ever-expanding skillset. USDA US Department of Agriculture FORAGES FOR THE FUTURE | Issue 7 3 Nile grass (Acroceras macrum) for Argentinean waterlogged soils Background (CP) contents of 17% in leaves, 7% in stems, Acroceras macrum (Nile grass) is a forage and 10.5% for the overall aerial portion; with grass native to sub-Saharan Africa, and digestible energy of 2.85 Mcal/ kg [2]. recommended for its good adaptation to wet Nutritional quality of grasses that prevail on soils with poor drainage and waterlogging waterlogged soils in subtropical regions is tendency of NE Argentina (NEA). Its greatest Evaluation-crossing plot containing the usually poor. A few wild grasses have limitation for commercial use is the A. macrum germplasm collection at INTA- favorable nutritional composition and high Corrientes, containing 27 different genotypes strenuousness to obtain fertile seed for large- digestibly, but they only represent a low originating from ARC, South Africa. scale sowing. Due to the lack of commercial percentage in the botanical composition, are seed, producers propagate it by manually low-yielding and short-season annuals. Nile planting rhizomes. This leads to genetically including 22 tetraploid (2n = 4x = 36) and5 grass is one of the few subtropical C3 highly uniform stands. hexaploid (2n = 6x = 54), as well as wide perennial grasses. It has nutritional quality genetic diversity [3] and higher fertility During the 1970's, the Agricultural Research similar to that of temperate species. INTA’s between 4x homoploid crosses [4].