Collection, Conservation and Evaluation for Forage Yield of Alfalfa Landraces Grown in East Anatolia

Year 2013, Volume: 18 Issue: 1, 46 - 51, 01.01.2013

Cafer Olcayto Sabancı M. Macit Ertus Seyda ZORER Celebı

Abstract

This study was conducted to collect, evaluate and conserve alfalfa landraces grown in Van province, East Anatolia in 2009-2011. Ten counties were visited and 66 alfalfa landraces were collected. The seed samples were sent to Aegean Agricultural Research Institute for long term conservation. With other 4 populations collected from university campus, a total of 70 alfalfa accessions with seven standards (controls) were grown in an augmented trial design with 5 replicates. Cultivar Elci had the highest green and dry matter yields. There was a great variability between landraces in terms of the characters recorded. Green, dry matter and crude protein yields of landraces were in the range of 24.67-103.21 t ha-1, 6.04-24.26 t ha-1, and 1.07-4.96 t ha-1, respectively. Landraces collected from Ercis and Gevas appeared to have high green and dry matter yields

Keywords

Conservation, collection, evaluation, landraces, Medicago sativa, yield