Seed and Seed Technology Help Group of

Oats (Avena sativa6) are an important, yet under utilized source of forage and fodder in developing countries, used variously for milk and meat production and feeding draft animals. It may be fed green, dried and used as oaten hay, or wilted and made into silage / balage. Multiple cuts are usually taken, after which part or all of the crop may be saved for seed. So far, this crop has been passed over by globally coordinated crop improvement programmes of the CGIAR. Instead, global leadership in the developing world has come from domestic crop improvement programmes within temperate and continental regions of developed countries. This has been made possible by the high degree of agro-ecological overlap between crop improvement programmes in these areas and cool season / winter lowland climates plus summer highland climates in sub-tropical and tropical ecologies. In these activities, the New Zealand oat programme has emerged as a leader, closely linked with North America and Europe where oats have been grown for grain since the early centuries of the Christian era