Germplasm Resources of Tropical Forage Grasses

The era of collecting exotic tropical forages for evaluation at research centers began in earnest about 50 years ago. The initial forage plant germplasm collection trips were made by CSIRO-ATFGRC (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization–Australian Tropical Forages Genetic Resources Center, Brisbane, Queensland) and other Australian researchers in Africa and the American tropics. This initial germplasm exploration was followed by others, including collection trips by the USA–ARS–SRPIS (United States Department of Agriculture–Agriculture Research Service–Southern Regional Plant Introduction Station), Griffin, GA, CIAT (Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical), Cali, Colombia, EMBRAPA’s CENARGEN (Central Nacional de Recursos Geneticos e Biotecnologia) Brasilia, Brazil, and ILCA (International Livestock Center for Africa), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. What began as a “collect whatever is available” project has been largely replaced by specific site collections as information on adaptability of species has become known. ¹ This increasing focus on tropical grass germplasm exploration is illustrated with the specific collection of Panicum and Andropogon species in Africa. ^{2 , 3}