Improvement of genetic potential and technologies in forage crops production in function of sustainable animal husbandry development

Production of high quality and cheap animal feed is the basis of sustainable animal husbandry. Forage legumes and grasses have an important place in the quality forage production on arable land and on hilly-mountainous grasslands. According to their importance, the project in a comprehensive way to study the problem of production of forage crops, improvement of their genetic potential, competitive ability, yield stability and persistency, the introduction of improved production technologies to maximize expression of genetic potential and symbiotic nitrogen fixation. Researches will be focused to improvement of grassland management and exploitation in the function of higher quality forage production, conservation of biodiversity and environmental protection. In order to increase the economic efficiency of production, investigation of conservation of produced biomass, as well as development of methods for improved production and processing of seed will be important issues, also. Within the project over 120 papers in international and national journals, as well as national and international meetings will be published. By the end of the project it is expected that nine PhD theses are finished and 5 new highly productive varieties of forage species are created. New and improved technological methods will allow economical production and utilization of forage crops in different production systems and reduce losses in seed production and processing of forage species.