Forage legumes (valued for their ability to provide high-protein animal feed, while simultaneously maintaining or improving soil fertility) are receiving increasing attention from scientists and farmers. Nutritious, high yielding vetch (Vicia spp.) and chickling (Lathyrus spp.) lines have been developed for use in different agroecological zones. Suitable vetch lines have been identified for use in low-rainfall areas of CWANA, while cold-tolerant vetches (with the potential to increase forage production at high altitudes) have been identified and distributed to farmers. Results from four years of testing have identified vetch and chickling lines well adapted for use in the alpine grasslands of China. ICARDA has also made advances in reducing the toxicity of grass pea, a drought-resistant crop which is an important source of food for the poor and feed for livestock.

Promising new vetch and chickling lines for CWANA

Livestock and human populations in the CWANA region are growing rapidly, increasing the pressure on the agricultural resource base. Severe feed deficits have triggered the replacement of the fallow-barley rotation system with continuous barley cropping in dry areas, and with increased cropping of marginal land. The agroecosystems of such marginal, low-rainfall areas are very fragile, and this unsustainable practice of the annual cropping of barley threatens to degrade and erode these delicate systems.

'Ali-Bar,'a grass pea variety released in Kazakstan.

Evaluating forage legumes in Georgia.

On-farm trials of narbon vetch in Syria.

Identifying vetch and chickling lines for China's alpine grasslands

Promising lines of vetch and chickling have been tested for a fourth growing season under alpine grassland conditions (which constitute approximately one-third of the total grassland area of China). A shortage of forage legumes (which would improve grassland and provide supplementary feed necessary in this harsh environment) is the main factor limiting grassland livestock production in China. In 1998, with the support of the Gansu provincial government,

ICARDA began to evaluate and select promising vetch and chickling species.
     Improved lines of Vicia villosa subsp. dasycarpa, Lathyrus cicera, V. sativa, L. sativus and V. narbonensis were tested at 3000 m a.s.l. in Xiahe county, Gansu province. This typical alpine grassland is 250 km southeast of Lanzhou city, and has an annual rainfall of around 350 mm.
     Twenty elite lines of each of the above species were tested. The mean herbage (DM) yields were 9.0, 7.4, 6.4, 5.6, and 3.6 t/ha, respectively, with V. villosa subsp. producing the highest herbage yield, followed by L. cicera. Vicia narbonensis had the lowest herbage yield. Vicia sativa and V. narbonensis also showed high levels of adaptation, with average grain yields of 1.04 and 1.07 t/ha, while the average seed yield of L. cicera was 0.8 t/ha.
     The elite lines V. sativa, V. narbonensis, and L. cicera demonstrated high levels of adaptation and high yield potentials under alpine grassland conditions in China, and have been selected for further, large-scale tests in farmers' fields.

Reducing the toxicity of grass pea to safeguard the health of the poor

Lathyrus sativus, or grass pea (also known as khesari in India and Bangladesh, guaya in Ethiopia, san li dow in China, and pois carré in France) is a drought-tolerant crop popular in drought-prone areas of Africa and Asia. Grass pea is not simply an animal feed. When other crops fail due to adverse conditions grass pea can be used as a food source, especially by the poor, thus acting as a 'survival food' in times of drought-induced famine (as happened in Ethiopia in 2002).