A review of plant characterization: First step towards sustainable forage production in challenging environments
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Date
2020
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
African Journal of Plant Science
Abstract
his review paper attempts to give account of how plant characterization assists the availability of
information on desirable plant traits, to enhance selective breeding for environmental stresses and thus
attain sustainable forage production. Plant characterization is referred to as an account for heritable
characters varying from agronomical, morphological to molecular markers. It simplifies grouping of
accessions, development of core collections, identification of gaps and retrieval of valuable germplasm
for breeding programmes resulting in better insight about the composition of the collection and its
genetic diversity. Plant characterization by morphological, physiological and agronomic traits has long
been used in selective breeding. Advancement of characterization to the use of molecular markers
speed up the process and permits optimal utilization of the adaptive traits harboured in all breeds for
stressful environments. In countries like Tanzania, where agro-climatic conditions are challenging,
technological progress is slow and market institutions are poorly developed, selecting highly adaptive
local varieties is important. Knowledge from characterization of local varieties could be used to breed
adaptive and resilient varieties. This will help the farmers to produce enough forage in the fast
changing and stressful environmental condition
Description
Journal Article
Keywords
Characterization, Cenchrus ciliaris, Drought, Salinity, Traits.
Citation
DOI: 10.5897/AJPS2020.2041 http://www.academicjournals.org/AJPS