Collection Priorities of Pasture Genetic Resources in the Paniceae Native to South Africa

There is an urgent need for the prioritization and ex situ conservation of pasture grass species. Many pasture grasses are still in the process of domestication and grasslands in the tropical, subtropical, semi-arid and arid regions of the world are therefore a major source of genetic material for future forage improvement. Within South Africa, it was found that the Paniceae contains several species with high pasture value and that many populations of these species are found in water-limited environments. Therefore, it was proposed that a strategy be developed for the South African National Forage Genebank to prioritize efforts to collect and conserve seed of grass species within the Paniceae, focussing especially on those species in genera Anthephora, Brachiaria, Digitaria, Panicum and Setaria located in areas receiving less than 600 mm of annual precipitation