24/03/2023

Rome, Italy, 22 March 2023 – The FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, together with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), have published a new booklet to support documentation of forage legumes, Key descriptors for forage legumes.

“This publication provides an international standard format to ensure consistency in the way data about plant material is documented and exchanged around the world,” said Kent Nnadozie, Secretary of the International Treaty.

The booklet contains an updated list of key descriptors based on preliminary characterization datasets developed by ILRI and the FAO International Treaty, and integrated afterwards with evaluation traits. The key descriptors are particularly helpful for researchers, plant breeders, and conservationists worldwide, in addition to national focal points of the International Treaty.

Forages play a crucial role in global agriculture, with an estimated 159 million hectares of cultivated forage crops in 2021, in addition to the 20-40% of land cover being classed as grasslands. They support the livelihoods of over 800 million farmers and ranchers. Yet, despite their global importance, forage genetic resources conservation and use have received little attention compared to food crops. Generating and sharing information on the diversity available in genebanks is the first step to identifying accessions with traits requested by users to respond to the need for better adapted and more productive forages to face the current challenges of climate change and producing more feed with fewer resources. 

Forage legumes are members of Fabaceae (Leguminosae) with plant parts other than grains used to feed ruminant livestock. They cover a wide range of species, including short-lived annuals to long-lived perennials adapted to both tropical and sub-tropical areas. This list of forage legume descriptors is limited to herbaceous small tropical species with specific examples from species of Clitoria ternatea, Macroptilium atropurpureum, Stylosanthes guianensis, Stylosanthes hamata and Stylosanthes scabra.

The publication addresses the gaps and the lack of coherence in the documentation methods for forage legumes. They are the result of a global survey conducted by ILRI and the Secretariat of the International Treaty in 2022 involving 22 experts from 13 different organizations and universities from 11 countries.

In partnership with leading research organizations, the Secretariat of the International Treaty is developing other similar crop descriptors, revising old ones and creating new descriptors to fill the gaps identified by the scientific community.

The Global Information System of the International Treaty makes this and other descriptors lists available to facilitate their use.

@PlantTreaty