Pasture, Forage, and Livestock Annual Report 1984/85

Abstract

The Pasture, Forage, and Livestock Program (PFLP) have the broad objective of improving livestock production and stability of rainfed farming systems in West Asia and North Africa. In attempting to do this it has identified two major agroecosystems: farms in the cereal zone whose basic product is wheat or barley, and marginal land within and adjacent to the cereal zone. The Program is structured into four projects: (1) annual pastures to replace fallow, (2) forage breeding, (3) marginal land improvement, and (4) livestock management and nutrition.

The first two projects are designed for the first agroecosystem, specifically to replace fallow in cereal /fallow rotations with either annually resown forages or self-regenerating pastures. In the case of forages, the objectives are to breed adapted cultivars of vetch (Vicia spp.) forage pea (Pisum sativum), and chickling (Lathyrus spp.). In the case of annual pastures, the objectives are to introduce self-regenerating populations of annual legumes and to devise management systems suitable for local economic and social conditions.