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Content archived on 2024-06-16

Native perennial forage plants for sustainability of farming systems in the Western Mediterranean

Objective

The amount of water available to agriculture in the Mediterranean is declining because of increasing population pressure and greater incidence of drought. Therefore, the efficiency of the use of water for agricultural production must be m aximized, and in this context perennial forage species have a number of advantages in comparison to the predominantly used annuals. They can utilize water throughout the whole year besides being able to halt rangeland degradation, restore soil fertility and enhance forage production, thereby contributing to greater sustainability of rainfed agricultural systems in the southern European Union and North Africa.Despite these advantages, the small size of individual national markets has so far worked against the development of a viable forage industry based on perennials. Therefore, by adopting a multi-national approach and targeting the key breeding objectives of superior drought resistance and water use eff iciency (WUE), this project aims to produce commercially viable cultivars of a select number of species of broad regional interest and adaptation.Ten partners from southern Europe and North Africa will combine to work on species including lucerne, cocksfoot, tall fescue and sulla to enhance cultivar development across environments ranging from the subhumid to arid. Complementary Workpackages will complete North African forage germplasm collection and evaluation, assess the use of molecular genetics in breeding of drought resistant lucerne, evaluate elite forage populations across the region for high WUE and adaptation to drought as bases for new cultivars, enhance knowledge of physiological trait s for drought survival and WUE, and determine optimal use of perennial forages in representative farming systems. Their results will contribute to the development of technical packages for

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Keywords

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Topic(s)

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Call for proposal

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FP6-2002-INCO-MPC-1
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Funding Scheme

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IP - Integrated Project

Coordinator

INSTITUT NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE AGRONOMIQUE
EU contribution
No data
Address
147 Rue de l'Universite
PARIS
France

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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

No data

Participants (9)

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