Challenges of grasses seed production for rehabilitation of rangelands and cultivation in low efficient dryland farming of Iran

Document Type : Research Paper

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Abstract

Iran with annual precipitation of 252 mm (one-third of the world’s average precipitation) is known as the most arid and semi arid regions of the world. Drought effects coupled with the increasing of population and the development of industrial activities has led to the intensification of desertification. Due to lack of fodder in the country, increasing cultivation area of grasses and legumes in rangelands and dryland farming systems is priority for livestock nutritional requirements. In sustainable agriculture, the forage varieties not only have high yielding, but also their seed production is a great important and it is one of the most important goals in breeding improved new varieties. Therefore, the high-yielding and palatable forage varieties have to potential to produce higher seed to increasing cultivation areas of degraded rangelands and inefficient dryland farming. Here in Iran, in many rangeland rehabilitation projects, Rangers and farmers use the seeds of wild species with low performance for cultivation. This is due to insufficient seeds quantities of improved verities. The seeds of such species usually have dormancy, low germination and heterogeneity in the field establishment. In this paper the published data of the grasses adaptation and their seed production mainly in Iran are reviewed and causes of their poor establishment is discussed. For pasture stability, the strategies of using composite variety by mixing the seeds of various outstanding populations are suggested. To overcome the low seed germination and vigority, appropriate solutions of seed processing using new technologies such as priming is presented.

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References

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Iranian Journal of Seed Sciences and Research
Volume 3, Issue 3
October 2016
Pages 117-132

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