Publication Date
1989
Description
Southeast Asia is generally considered to be only a minor center of origin of forage legume. Yet, in a comprehensive overview of tropical legumes with forage potential. Williams (1983) listed 68 genera in the Papilionoideae subfamily alone whose natural distribution extends to tropical Asia. Moreover, from these come a number of species with wellknown commercial varieties, such as Desmodium heterocarpon. D. heterophyllum, D. ovalifolium and Pueraria phaseoloides.
In spite of the potential of native legumes, systematic plant exploration and collection in the region have only been undertaken recently. They are principally the result or collaborative efforts between national agricultural research institutions and the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), as part of the strategy of CIA T's Tropical Pastures Program to build up a comprehensive international germplasm collection for development of acid-soil tolerant cultivars (Schultze-Kraft, 1985). The objectives of the collection efforts in Southeast Asia are to increase the variability in the previously mentioned species whose genetic bases have been dangerously narrow, and to make available for evaluation purposes a broad range of other, agronomically unknown genera and species. This paper reports on this international germplasm collection program which during the period 1979-88 concentrated in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and tropical China.
Citation
Schultze-Kraft, R; Pattanavibul, S; Gani, A; He, C; and Wong, C C., "Collection of Native Germplasmn Resources of Tropical Forage Legumes in Southeast Asia" (2025). IGC Proceedings (1989-2023). 43.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/igc/1989/session3/43
Included in
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Collection of Native Germplasmn Resources of Tropical Forage Legumes in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia is generally considered to be only a minor center of origin of forage legume. Yet, in a comprehensive overview of tropical legumes with forage potential. Williams (1983) listed 68 genera in the Papilionoideae subfamily alone whose natural distribution extends to tropical Asia. Moreover, from these come a number of species with wellknown commercial varieties, such as Desmodium heterocarpon. D. heterophyllum, D. ovalifolium and Pueraria phaseoloides.
In spite of the potential of native legumes, systematic plant exploration and collection in the region have only been undertaken recently. They are principally the result or collaborative efforts between national agricultural research institutions and the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), as part of the strategy of CIA T's Tropical Pastures Program to build up a comprehensive international germplasm collection for development of acid-soil tolerant cultivars (Schultze-Kraft, 1985). The objectives of the collection efforts in Southeast Asia are to increase the variability in the previously mentioned species whose genetic bases have been dangerously narrow, and to make available for evaluation purposes a broad range of other, agronomically unknown genera and species. This paper reports on this international germplasm collection program which during the period 1979-88 concentrated in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and tropical China.
