ABSTRACT
The projected upsurge in the human population requires a considerable increase in livestock-based agricultural system food production and sustainability to achieve the world’s food security goals. By converting forage into high-grade proteins for human consumption, livestock plays a vital role in the human food supply chain. Breeding of fodder crops for high-yielding and superior-quality forage is crucial to satisfy livestock’s nutritional requirements for efficient production. Since the advent of agriculture, farmers have been improving the performance of domesticated crops through selection. Recently, increased knowledge of heredity and plant biology has equipped forage breeders to combine desired traits of spatially scattered parents in a single variety. Conventional fodder breeding strategies such as selection, hybridization, and synthetic variety development ensure animal production systems’ sustainability with reduced impact on the environment. Conventional breeding strategies targeting the development of future forage crops with high yield and quality; resource efficiency; and resistance to temperature anomalies, drought, insects, pests, and other traits of interest, keeping in mind the sustainability of the entire farming system, are the need of the hour. This chapter comprehensively discusses fodder breeding strategies and forage breeders’ challenges in achieving the goal.
