Open AccessBREEDING FOR DRYLAND FARMING
Author(s) -
W. Rumball
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
proceedings of the new zealand grassland association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1179-4577
pISSN - 0369-3902
DOI - 10.33584/jnzg.1983.44.1649
Subject(s) - dryland farming , pasture , agroforestry , grazing , agronomy , cultivar , agriculture , geography , biology , ecology
There are over 50 types of pasture plant commercially available to New Zealand farmers, and many of these are useful in dryland pastures. A feature unique to New Zealand is that they cover a wide range of species and genera, and even more are currently being bred or evaluated at Grasslands Division, DSIR. Dryland breeding projects have tended to use both local adapted material and overseas seed collections, and neither approach should be ignored. Screening of plants has almost always been done outdoors, under grazing, and wherever possible in the region of intended use. The philosophy of breeding for drought survival, ahead of production, is described with several examples from recently released cultivars. The limitations of these new cultivars are mainly in their slow establishment. The major breeding priority for dryland is for legumes capable of surviving in the competitive and severely grazed conditions of dryland pasture and of providing nutritious feed over several months of each year. Keywords: plant breeding, dryland.