Promising forage resources for production systems in Mediterranean areas

. Extensive livestock production is a basic socio-economic feature of Mediterranean agriculture threat-ened by overgrazing of natural grasslands and by climate change. Stress-tolerant forage resources are in-creasingly needed, therefore, to enhance the sustainability of Mediterranean crop-livestock systems. Assess-ing the response of the available germplasm of a few, key species across different stress levels of the Mediterranean area can provide information on best plant types, genetic resources and adaptation strategies. A large set of experiments (here summarised) was performed for over a decade on both sides of the western Mediterranean basin, indicating that germplasm adapted to dryland conditions can be found in all forage species. This germplasm could be directly used for cropping or as parental material in breeding programmes. A clear genotype × environment interaction was generally found for yield, emphasising the need of selecting spe-cific germplasm for different environments. Legume-based crops displayed higher forage quality and farmers’ appreciation than pure-stand crops of cereals or grasses.