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Introduction

.Red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) is biennial or perennial (three-year plant)  fodder crop. Its centre of origin and biodiversity is Mediterranean gene-centre (South-East Europe and Middle Asia).

Red clover belongs to the family of legumes, it has diploid number of chromosomes (2n=14), self-incompatible and bees and bumble-bees pollinating.

 

Owing to economic importance of red clover, the interest in new varieties of this crop is in the sharp increase in the Europe and in Croatia.In the absence of domestic varieties, production of forage is mainly based on imported cultivars, which often deteriorate after the first winter, due to maladjustment to our growing conditions.

Due to diversity of climate and relief, local red clover population developed in the area of the Republic of Croatia are adapted to specific agroecological conditions. Local populations represent rich source of genetic variability, and there is a high potential of using them in creating new varieties..

Šoštarić-Pisačić (1967) and Čižek (1970) were pointed out in the 1960ties that the best red clover are those of local origin. Gikić (1967) adds that red clovers of local origin are best adapted to environmental conditions, provide more natural hay, and are more resistant to drought and winter. Šoštarić-Pisačić (1967), Čižek (1970), Zeven (1998), Kölliker et al. (2003), Čupić et al. (2008) cite the value of locally adapted breeding populations in relation to commercial cultivars originating from other geographic areas.

 

In the most of previous research in Croatia (and in the world) the topic of research were mostly commercial varieties. Local populations itself, and especially comparison of the traits of local populations and commercial varieties were not frequent topic of research.

 

Seeds of local populations of red clover was collected in the period between 2006 and 2009 in a wider area of the Republic of Croatia within the regional programme SEEDNet (South East European Development Network on Plant Genetic Resources) financed by International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and National Programme for Presrvation and Sustainable Use of Plant Genetic Resources funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development.

Local populations of red clover are the basis of the proposed project within which the modern biotechnological methods will be applied to study morphological and molecular characteristics of local populations and compared with commercial cultivars in order to create the initial breeding germplasm to create new domestic cultivars adapted for cultivation in different environmental conditions.

The results of the research will represent a direct contribution to:

(1) development of local germplasm of red clover of valuable genetic basis for adaptability to different agroecological growing conditions in individual Croatian agricultural areas,

(2) the use of local populations of red clover breeding in the future development of new varieties that will directly contribute to the added value of the final products, and rural development in general, by increasing domestic supply of demanded but deficient varieties of red clover.

The value of germplasm studied, described and selected in the proposed project will have a significant contribution to future research projects on the one hand, and to the creation and marketing of new varieties in the Croatian Republic on the other hand. This would not have only a limited impact on the development of livestock and the dairy industry but will also have an impact to the development of Croatian economy in general.

 

Snježana Bolarić

University of Zagreb, Faculty of Agriculture

Svetošimunska cesta 25, HR-10 000 Zagreb

 

Phone: +385 1 239 3628

Fax: +385 1 239 3631

 

e-mail: sbolaric@agr.hr

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