The main role of grasses, clovers and alfalfa in temperate agriculture is still to provide forage for ruminant animals but, in the last decades, the importance of amenity grasses increased markedly and, in the near future, new developments in the areas of energy and biomass use can be envisaged. Fodder Crops and Amenity Grasses, fifth volume in the series, Handbook of Plant Breeding, covers all these aspects.
Most fodder crops and amenity grasses are perennials and many of them are natural or induced polyploids. Thus, breeding procedures and strategies differ greatly from breeding annual field crops. Breeding objectives are more difficult to define in forage crops because direct measurement of the efficiency of animal production during breeding and variety assessment is impractical. As a result, a large number of selection criteria have been developed for the particular crops. However, breeding objectives and methodology have a common basis among these species and are therefore presented in the general chapters. Particular emphasis is placed on the breeding methodology for cross-pollinating species because the large majority of crops belong to this group. In addition, the potential of new molecular techniques to complement breeding concepts and strategies is presented and critically discussed.
Special techniques and procedures as well as particular breeding goals will be included in the crop specific chapters. Amenity grass breeding has its own breeding objectives and testing procedures, however, the species are mostly the same as in forage grass breeding, and crop specific chapters will include the amenity aspects where appropriate. The crop specific chapters will cover the range of topics given in the guidelines below.
The volume on Fodder Crops and Amenity Grasses is the fifth volume in series Handbook of Plant Breeding after the initial volumes on Vegetables, Cereals, Oil Crops and Fruits. Like the other volumes in the series, the volume presents information on the latest scientific information in applied plant breeding using the current advances in the field, from efficient use of genetic resources to impact of biotechnology in plant breeding. Outstanding scientists from all over the world have contributed chapters to the work.