1 South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI), Waite Campus, GPO Box 397, Adelaide 5001, Australia.
www.sardi.sa.gov.au Email garnett.trevor@saugov.sa.gov.au
2 Grasslands Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science, 120 East Wulanchabu Road, Huhhot, Inner Mongolia,
010010, PR China. www.caas.net.cn Email xuzhu@public.hh.nm.cn
3 Soil and Fertiliser Institute, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 28 Sang Yuan Road, Jinan, Shandong, 250100, PR
China. www.saas.ac.cn Email liuzhaohui@saas.ac.cn
4 College of Grassland Science, Beijing Forestry University, Box 116, 35 Qinghua East Street, Beijing, 100083, PR China.
www.bjfu.edu.cn Email luxinshi@sohu.com
5 Gansu Grasslands Ecological Research Institute, Lanzhou University, PO Box 61, Lanzhou, 730020, PR China.
www.lzu.edu.cn Email yrwang@lzu.edu.cn
6 College of Grassland Science, Gansu Agricultural University, No. 1 Yingmen Village, Anning District, Lanzhou, 730070, PR
China. www.gsau.edu.cn
7 Great Southern Agricultural Research Institute, Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, 10 Dore Street, Katanning, WA,
6317, Australia. www.agric.wa.gov.au Email kdavies@agric.wa.gov.au
8 Current Address: Mallee Research Station, Department of Primary Industries, Victoria, PB 1, Walpeup, Vic 3507
www.dpi.vic.gov.au Email roy.latta@dpi.vic.gov.au
Lucerne (alfalfa) is a high quality, high productivity fodder crop grown around the world. In Southern Australia it is being widely promoted not only as a fodder crop but also as a way to reduce groundwater recharge. In China, lucerne is being widely promoted as a way of reducing overgrazing of natural grasslands by traditional livestock industries and also to supply high quality feed to the rapidly expanding new livestock industries. In Australia lucerne expansion is limited by environmental stresses such as salinity, acidity/aluminium and waterlogging. In northern and western China lucerne is limited by environmental stresses such as extreme cold, drought, and salinity. A diverse range of germplasm from around the world has been collected and is being characterised and the seed multiplied. This germplasm is being evaluated in field trials in Northern China: in Shandong; Inner Mongolia; Gansu and in Australia: South Australia; Western Australia. The best material identified in the field trials will then be the focus of either commercialisation and extension activities in the case of elite germplasm or further breeding in the case of stress tolerant but agronomically poorer germplasm.
Australian and Chinese scientists are working together to acquire lucernes from around the world and testing their suitability for growing in harsh environments in both countries.
Key Words
alfalfa; aluminium; waterlogging; salinity; drought; cold tolerance.
Lucerne (alfalfa) is the most widely sown perennial fodder legume in the world. In Australia it is grown over 1.8 million ha for both fodder and forage production. As well as being a valuable fodder and forage crop it also has an important role in reducing groundwater recharge and consequent dryland salinity (Cocks 2001). Although being widely adapted to southern Australian farming regions there are large areas where growing lucerne would be beneficial but its use is restricted because of environmental stresses such as acidity/aluminium, salinity and waterlogging.
Lucerne has been grown in China for over 2000 years and is currently grown on more than 1.5 million ha across 14 provinces. The area under lucerne is rapidly expanding due to both government policy and commercial reasons. The government policy is to produce quality fodder so that overgrazing of natural grasslands and the resulting environmental degradation can be reduced. The commercial reasons are that high quality fodder is needed to supply the rapidly developing livestock industries (both dairy and meat) associated with the improving economic conditions in China. In north and northwest China, lucerne use is currently restricted by cold, drought and salinity. Where lucerne is grown it is often those local landraces of limited genetic base with little or no breeding for quality or pest and disease tolerance.
Lucerne has a long history of cultivation worldwide and it has shown wide adaptation to a range of environments. In a project funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) we are utilising this genetic diversity to find better lucernes with tolerance to the environmental stresses availing in target areas in Australia and China. Large collections of lucerne are held in genetic resource centres throughout the world and this is one source of material available to the project. Other germplasm for the project comes from a range of commercially available cultivars and breeders lines. The project also actively seeks new germplasm through participation in and support of collection missions.
The goals of this project are to gather and characterise a collection of germplasm that may be suitable for the prospective environments in both China and Australia. Subsets of this collection are being evaluated in field trials in those target areas. Based on performance in the field trials and using the information from characterisation activities we aim to identify high quality germplasm that will grow well in target areas or identify stress tolerant material that may be used in breeding programs to create high quality cultivars.
Germplasm was sourced from genetic resources collections and lucerne researcher collections throughout the world. This included wild lucernes, breeding lines, cultivars, and land races. A total of more than 200 accessions were included based on likelihood of success in at least one of the target environments. The full range of winter activity ratings were included from 1-11. The germplasm was mostly Medicago sativa subspecies sativa or falcata (but with some subspecies: varia; glomerate; and coerulea). For material with limited seed, seed was multiplied using small open-pollinated plots with accessions grouped according to winter activity rating. A germplasm collection mission to Kazakhstan was undertaken in 2002 and over one hundred lucernes (mostly ssp falcata) were collected.
Accessions are also being characterised at the SARDI Genetic Resource Centre (GRC) and pure seed will be produced as part of this process.
There are six field sites in China and two in Australia (Figure 1). The Chinese field sites are in: Inner Mongolia (Huhhot and Taipusqi); Shandong (Dezhou and Dongying); and Gansu (Lanzhou and Zhangye). The Australian sites are in Katanning in Western Australia and Tintinara in South Australia. The Chinese sites are generally characterised by having cold winters with summer predominant rainfall whereas the Australian trials have wet mild winters and dry hot summers. Basic information about the trial sites is presented in table 1.
(a) |
(b) |
Figure 1. Trial locations in Australia (a) and China (b).
Table 1. Trial site characteristics in China and Australia.
Location |
Site |
Soil pH |
Mean max winter (°C) |
Mean max summer (°C) |
Mean Rainfall(mm) |
China | |||||
Inner Mongolia |
Huhhot |
Alkaline |
-11 |
30 |
150 |
Dairy region supplying feed for dairy cattle. Very cold winters the major stress. Low rainfall with flood irrigation from artesian supply. | |||||
Taipusqi |
Alkaline |
-19 |
26 |
401 | |
Situated on a degraded grassland area. Grazing and forage production are the main activities in the area. Very cold winters are the major stress. For both the Inner Mongolian sites the cold winters are especially harsh because of a lack of snow cover. | |||||
Shandong |
Dezhou |
Alkaline |
6 |
30 |
557 |
Salinity is main stress in this region. This region also has a burgeoning dairy industry. | |||||
Dongying |
Alkaline |
7 |
29 |
580 | |
Salinity is main stress in this region. This site is on the Yellow River delta with the land recently formed by silt deposition from the river. Soils are saline with shallow saline watertable. | |||||
Gansu |
Lanzhou |
Alkaline |
4 |
30 |
330 |
. |
Dry region on the Silk Route with the main stress being drought. A plant that can yield well with minimal irrigation is sought for this area. | ||||
Zhangye |
Alkaline |
2 |
29 |
121 | |
Very dry region on the Silk Route with the main stress being drought. A plant that can yield well with minimal irrigation is sought for this area. | |||||
Australia |
|||||
Western Australia |
Katanning |
Acid |
15 |
30 |
470 |
This area is typical of large areas in the Western Australian cropping zone that are under threat from dryland salinity. Lucerne use is being encouraged in this region to reduce groundwater recharge. Much of the area has acidic soils containing aluminium that are inhospitable to current lucernes. | |||||
South Australia |
Tintinara |
Alkaline |
15 |
30 |
470 |
This region has large areas of lucerne and is an important lucerne seed production area. There is a shallow saline watertable so salinity is a problem but the major stress is associated with waterlogging events in winter that can last from 3-6 weeks and do major damage to lucerne crops. |
The Chinese field trials consisted of 1 x 5 m, 3-row plots sown by hand. Trials were hand weeded. The Australian trials consisted of 1 x 5 m, 5-row plots machine sowed with weeds controlled chemically using local practise but generally consisting of good pre-seeding weed control and winter cleaning. Sowing depth was 0.5-1 cm at all sites. Plots are being assessed for persistence by measuring the increase in the number of 15 cm gaps between plants. Gaps were measured yearly from planting. Biomass is being assessed by sub-sampling trial plots 3-4 times throughout the growing season. In China this is through spring summer and autumn whilst in Australia it is year-round dependent upon rainfall. The entire plots are mowed or grazed following sub sampling. Heights are being measured 2-3 weeks after the last biomass sampling at the start of winter. This minimum dataset is being collected at all sites but quality characteristics and disease/pest tolerance are being evaluated at some of the trial sites.
The germplasm collection thus far has resulted in over 200 lines being collected from a range of sources and basic information has been collated on this material. Material that has had limited characterisation is being characterised in conjunction with the SARDI GRC.
At this stage results are only preliminary given that performance over at least three years is important for a lucerne to be suitable for a particular site. With this point in mind the top 5 lucernes at each site based on one years biomass harvests are presented in table 2. Some lucerne accessions, especially in the colder sites of Inner Mongolia, had no plants surviving after the first winter. The majority of the material that was found to yield well at the Chinese sites were local landraces or old cultivars that are poor quality compared with modern cultivars from Europe, Australia or the US. Vertebrate pests (rabbits and prairie dogs) were found to be a problem at some sites and one trial (Dongying) was completely destroyed.
Table 2. Top 5 performing lucernes at each field site in China (a) and Australia (b) based on preliminary yield results.
(a)
Inner Mongolia |
Shandong |
Gansu |
|||
Location |
Huhhot |
Taipusqi |
Dezhou |
Lanzhou |
Zhangye |
Ranking 1 |
YL-3 |
Caoyuan 2 |
Wugong |
Sitel |
Gongnong 1 |
2 |
Dayushan |
Gannong 2 |
Prime |
Xinjiang Daye |
Bear 1 |
3 |
Ladak |
Yuxian |
Altai |
Prime |
Gongnong 1 |
4 |
Gannong 1 |
Wudi |
Beijiang |
Derby |
Alfalfa Queen |
5 |
USSR36 |
Algonquin |
Sanditi |
WL323 |
Gongnong 2 |
(b)
Western Australia |
South Australia | |
Location |
Kattaning |
Tintinara |
Ranking 1 |
L 124 |
L 60 |
2 |
L 125 |
L 124 |
3 |
SA 35093 |
L 262 |
4 |
Eureka |
L 289 |
5 |
L 113 |
L 90 |
The germplasm collection of the project is now quite extensive and the information collected from the field evaluation and characterisation will make this collection a considerable resource for future work. The results thus far have shown the type of germplasm that is suitable for each site and future work will more closely target this germplasm for breeding for quality and pest/disease tolerance whilst more elite germplasm can be directly commercialised. Other work being carried out is developing techniques which will allow us to rapidly screen material for tolerance to stresses (specifically acid/aluminium, salinity and waterlogging) in glasshouses and in this way we will have more targeted material for future field trials.
This collaborative project is funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) (Project AS1/1998/026).
Cocks PS (2001). Ecology of herbaceous perennial legumes: a review of characteristics that may provide management options for the control of salinity and waterlogging in dryland cropping systems. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 52, 137–151.
Humphries AW and Auricht GC (2001) Breeding lucerne for Australia's southern dryland cropping environments. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 52, 153-169.