Fodder oats in Nepal: Fulfilling farmer needs (part II)

Abstract

The introduction of winter fodder production to Nepal, based mainly on fodder oats, has been spectacularly successful as it has allowed improved animal nutrition and health, increased milk production and therefore farmer incomes, and reduced workloads (particularly for women). Seed of improved fodder oat varieties was originally intro­duced to Nepal in the 1980s, but unfortunately formal maintenance and seed multiplica­tion of the selected varieties was not achieved. Since 2000, a novel New Zealand-based oat improvement initiative, coupled with the winter fodder production programme, has prompted renewed interest in this crop, and since 2004 six new varieties have been released based on parent material originally supplied from Canada, New Zealand and India. Under the new Cool Season Crop Improvement Programme-Nepal, an early gen­eration seed maintenance and production nursery network is being established, linking research, extension and farmers. In this poster we briefly review the history of oat introductions, and provide a framework for the provision of genotypes that fulfill farmer needs for quick growing, high quality dry matter producing, multi-cut varieties.