XVI International Botanical Congess

The commercial success of a newly selected herbage cultivar depends not only on its forage attributes, but also on its ability to produce seed. Progress in breeding for seed production is influenced by species, genetic diversity within species, environmental and stress factors, as well as cultural practices and seed marketing demand. The potential seed yield is very high for all forage species, but the realized seed yield is still very low. A major research effort should be directed at exploiting and manipulating reproductive mechanisms in both forage legumes and grasses, thereby increasing efficiency, so that actual seed yield more closely parallels the biological seed production potential. Seed setting and development, and seed shattering are the characters to be primarily considered in conventional breeding programs for seed yield increase. Control of lodging, pests and weeds, improving plant growth and photosynthetic efficiency, are critical key factors. Owing to the strong limitations imposed on the use of chemicals for economic reasons and pollution concerns, biotechnological methods currently available at both the cellular and molecular levels should play in the near future an important role in the forage seed production breeding.