Track 4-1-1: Plant Genetic Resources, Collection, Conversation, Evaluation and IPR Issues

Description

The realization of the effects of climate change redirected the focus on agroforestry, which deals with the management of land use system for increased sustainability. Enhancement of fodder production per unit area per unit time is essential to meet the demand from livestock sector for which different land use systems are being developed. Acacia nilotica is one of the important agroforestry species which fits into in silvipastoral system under agroforestry, in arid and semi-arid regions. It is known as babool, kikkar or Indian gum arabic, which has ability to improve nitrogen content of soil through its interaction with symbiotic bacteria on drought prone and degraded soils, tolerant to waterlogged conditions. It is an important source of fodder, the leaves and pods together will supplement the protein component in the livestock feed and when everything is dry; Acacias serve as the only green fodder source during peak summer season. It is a good source of timber, fuel wood, industrial source for the raw material tannin and as protective hedge and hence plays an important role in rural farming. The studies on maximization of forage production and wasteland development has reported that babool has highest survivability among fodder trees and has higher dry fodder production/tree/year. Tree growth and canopy diameter contributes to the production of green as well as dry fodder biomass. Assessing the variation within and among the provenance selections for different traits will help selection of genotypes for different use in the silvipastoral agroforestry system. In view of this, the present study was undertaken to study the genetic variability present in the candidate plus trees of different provenances collected from central India.

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Genetic Variability in Candidate Plus Trees of Acacia nilotica--An Important Fodder Tree under Agroforestry System

The realization of the effects of climate change redirected the focus on agroforestry, which deals with the management of land use system for increased sustainability. Enhancement of fodder production per unit area per unit time is essential to meet the demand from livestock sector for which different land use systems are being developed. Acacia nilotica is one of the important agroforestry species which fits into in silvipastoral system under agroforestry, in arid and semi-arid regions. It is known as babool, kikkar or Indian gum arabic, which has ability to improve nitrogen content of soil through its interaction with symbiotic bacteria on drought prone and degraded soils, tolerant to waterlogged conditions. It is an important source of fodder, the leaves and pods together will supplement the protein component in the livestock feed and when everything is dry; Acacias serve as the only green fodder source during peak summer season. It is a good source of timber, fuel wood, industrial source for the raw material tannin and as protective hedge and hence plays an important role in rural farming. The studies on maximization of forage production and wasteland development has reported that babool has highest survivability among fodder trees and has higher dry fodder production/tree/year. Tree growth and canopy diameter contributes to the production of green as well as dry fodder biomass. Assessing the variation within and among the provenance selections for different traits will help selection of genotypes for different use in the silvipastoral agroforestry system. In view of this, the present study was undertaken to study the genetic variability present in the candidate plus trees of different provenances collected from central India.