Use of Alternative Crops for Forage Production and Soil Conservation [antikvár]

Foreword In accordance to the Programme of Co-operation in Science and Technology between the Governments of the Republic of Hungary and Japan, seminars were held at the Kyushu National Agricultural Experimental Station, at the National Institute of Agrobiological Resources in Tsukuba, at Hokkaido National Experiment Station in Sapporo, Japan and at the Research Centre of Debrecen Agricultural University in Hungary on the "Use of Alternative Crops for Forage Production and Soil Conservation". The aim of the seminars was to help co-operation in the field of collection and exchange of genetic material of leguminous crops suitable for forage production and for soil conservation. Selected papers of these meetings and seminars offers a good opportunity to analyse genebank activity in the cooperating countries and study the use of alternative crops in forage production and soil conservation. • The project assisted partners to share efforts in collection and in exchanging of genetic resources. • The project also helped to build collaboration in the conservation and use of plant genetic resources concentrating on forage plants of key importance to regional agriculture. • The project gave the possibilities to study and promote improved strategies and technologies for plant genetic resources conservation and study of wild relatives of cultivated crops and altemative plants for forage production and soil conservation. • The seminars helped co-operating countries to asses their needs for collection and conservation of plant genetic resources. The excellent personal relationship established during the implementation of this project will serve as a good basis for further co-operation in research. The results of collecting and introducing genetic resources can be realised by the plant breeding projects in each side resulting more resistant and more productive varieties of plants for sustainable agriculture. Bertalan Székely Head, Crop Production Department Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development