Perennial Spring Rye as a Crop Alternative*)

Abstract

AbstractDue to recent research results breeding of perennial rye to‐day seems possible and in so far desirable as changed premises in agricultural production ask for the invention of new farming systems. Accordingly, the farmer would have to earn his livelihood more by decrease of expenses in a constant production level than by further increase of production quantity. Then, agricultural crops with newly designed characters or even absolutely new crop species particularly with low demands for cultivation, water supply, fertilizer or other agrochemicals (low‐input varieties) could be very helpful. For that a project of breeding “perennial rye” (Secale cereale × Secale montanum), for different farming systems respectively, is presented which has already been performed in some details and which could surely be realized in total if only a small part of the means were invested in this project as for example were spent into the development of Triticale as a new crop plant. Because of its high tolerance to poor sandy soils and water stress a perennial green forage rye may also be expected to be well suited in a spring rye variant for the improvement of dry pastures in the subtropical countries. A corresponding research project has been supported since 1985 by GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit GmbH).