ABSTRACT
Summary Only since World War II has attention been directed to grassland in Japan. Forage crops were introduced on dairy farms for feeding cattle. Acreages have increased and now equal 15% of the total field area. Forage crops are second to rice as a major crop. The New Grassland Law, approved in 1950, has led to “grassland improvement” and development of established pastures. Japan, situated in the most northern part of the Asian Monsoon Area, is warm as a rule and has much rainfall. Miscanthus sinensis Steud. and Zoysia japonica Steud. are the dominant representative species of natural grassland. Most of the grassland soil, supposedly improved, is of volcanic ash. Red clover (Trifolium pratense L.), orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.), etc., are being sown in pastures. Warm-season species such as bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum Flugge) are more suited to the warmer regions. Because of the Japanese climate, silage has been preferred to hay. Making silage of high quality that is high in calories is of utmost importance to grassland farmers. Research organizations (National Grassland Research Institute is one of these) have been established in the last 25 years. For higher education, departments of grassland science were established at Obihiro and Miyazaki Universities. Large areas of mountain land remain that could be utilized by grazing of cattle after some improvement. According to a government survey, 1.29 million ha of land is regarded as suitable for grassland. Japan imports huge amounts of feed grains, which constitutes a serious problem from the viewpoint of world food and also from the standpoint of national security. Although the climate of Japan, as a rule, is favorable for producing forage, various problems remain to be solved. Most of them cannot be resolved without systematic research. Of the many Asian countries, China, the Mongolian People's Republic, the Philippines, and Thailand were selected as examples for the present paper. In recent years there has been a remarkable increase in demand for milk and meat. Thus, grassland farming is attracting great interest from researchers and producers in those countries. Judging from past experience in these countries, grassland farming must be promising. Grassland farming in Asia has unique characteristics and many difficult problems to be solved. To those of us involved in developing grassland farming, nothing could be of greater help than the international exchange of knowledge, information, and research ideas.
