Pasture management studies at the International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA)

The International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) is one of the youngest of 13 international agricultural research centres. Its mandate covers North Africa and West Asia. ICARDA concentrates its activities on the improvement of rain-fed agricultural systems with an annual rainfall of 200 to 600 mm. A survey of the forage improvement programme is presented. About 15,000 lines have been gathered in the germplasm collection of this programme. Current emphasis is on the following annual and perennial leguminous genera: Medicago, Onobrychis, Vicia, Pisum, Lathyrus and Trifolium. A number of forage cereals, mainly barley, Triticale, some annual and perennial Secale cultivars and also perennial grasses are being tested. Up to now, emphasis in the forage improvement programme has been placed on: (a) selection of crops grown in the area, (b) plant introduction, and (c) breeding which has been initiated. Little has been done on pasture management, which remains an important task for the future. Nuclear techniques have not yet been used in the forage improvement programme itself; however, other ICARDA projects have successfully applied nuclear techniques. In the future these projects may be of direct importance to the pasture and rangeland programme. Inter-programme projects, a common approach of ICARDA, will foster the development of pasture management at ICARDA; it is planned to include nuclear techniques in these co-ordinated projects. (author)