Genetic Resources of Mediterranean Pasture and Forage Legumes

Genetic Resources of Mediterranean Pasture and Forage Legumes is a comprehensive review of grassland improvement in Mediterranean areas using legume species. The book includes a detailed account of the processes involved in understanding the ecology of legumes and their collection in the Mediterranean, through to their preliminary evaluation and storage at various Genetic Resource Centres. A generic conspectus and key to the forage legumes of the Mediterranean basin is also included. These proceedings are truly international with examples on the collection and use of Mediterranean genetic resources being illustrated by Genetic Resource Centres in Australia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Syria, Turkey and Tunisia. Current important issues such as the sustainability of Mediterranean grasslands, the risk of genetic erosion and the principles of population genetics employed during a collecting mission are discussed.
The book will be of value to researchers working in the fields of grassland and rangeland improvement, Mediterranean farming systems, genetic resources, and pasture and forage ecology.

1. Introduction: Role of pasture and forage legumes in mediterranean farming systems.- 2. Reproductive strategies and genetic structure of wild and naturalised legume populations.- 3. Reasons for collecting wild plants.- 4. Using collections to describe ecological relationships.- 5. Ecogeography and genetic conservation.- 6. Genetic erosion of pasture and forage legumes in the Mediterranean basin.- 7. Sampling wild legume populations.- 8. The need to collect new pasture and forage species.- 9. The host-rhizobia relationship.- 10. The agronomic purpose of evaluation: Relating nurseries to field situations.- 11. Evaluation of the feeding value of pasture legumes.- 12. The influence of storage conditions on seed viability.- 13. The characterisation and preliminary evaluation of Medicago and Trifolium germplasm.- 14. Plant genetic resources programme in Turkey with special reference to forage legumes.- 15. Forage and pasture legume genetic resources at ICARDA.- 16. From free access to fair trade: Political dimensions of collecting in situ plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA).- 17. A generic conspectus of the forage legumes of the Mediterranean basin.- 18. Conservation and utilisation of agricultural diversity in Greece. Current status and perspectives.- 19. Conserving plant genetic resources in Cyprus.- 20. Observations on the distribution and ecology of annual Medicago species in northern Tunisia.