Globally, over-reliance on major food crops (wheat, rice and maize) has led to food basket’s shrinking, while climate change, environmental pollution and deteriorating soil fertility demand the cultivation of less exhaustive but nutritious grasses. Unlike neglected grasses (grass species restricted to their centres of origin and only grown at the subsistence level), many underutilized grasses (grass species whose yield or usability potential remains unrealized) are resistant and resilient to abiotic stresses and have multiple uses including food (Coix lacryma-jobi), feed (Eragrostis amabilis and Cynodon dactylon), esthetic value (Miscanthus sinensis and Imperata cylindrica), renewable energy production (Spartina pectinata and Andropogon gerardii Vitman) and contribution to ecosystem services (Saccharum spontaneum). Lack of agricultural market globalization, urbanization and prevalence of large commercial enterprises that favor major grasses trade, improved communication means that promoted specialization in favor of established crops, scant planting material of underutilized grasses and fewer research on their production technology and products development are the prime challenges posed to underutilized grasses promotion. Integration of agronomic research with novel plant protection measures and plant breeding and molecular genetics approaches for developing biotic and abiotic stresses tolerant cultivars along with the development of commercially attractive food products hold the future key for promoting underutilized grasses for supplanting food security and sustainably multiplying economic outcomes.

Under a changing climate, harvesting management and exploiting the genotypic divergence of Egyptian clover cultivars offers a biologically viable solution to sustainably boost the milk productivity of dairy animals. Two multi-season field trials were executed under semi-arid conditions whereby the first experiment aimed to assess the potential of Egyptian clover cultivars (Berseem Agaiti, Anmol and SB-11) for nutritional quality attributes and the digestibility of green forage and hay, forage palatability and milk productivity of buffaloes fed on hay. In the second field investigation, new promising line, SB-11, was tested for seed production potential under varying dates of the last harvesting regimes (10, 20 and 30 March along with 9 April and 19 April) owing to a sharp hike in temperature. In terms of the nutritive value of green forage and hay, SB-11 remained superior for recording the maximum crude protein (CP), ash, fat and nitrogen-free extract except dry matter (DM) content that was exhibited by the Anmol cultivar. Additionally, SB-11 remained unmatched by giving a minimum crude fiber (CF), while Berseem Agaiti yielded the lesser nutritive forage by producing 4% and 2% higher CF than SB-11 and Anmol, respectively. Moreover, SB-11 recorded the maximum digestibility of CP and DM. Furthermore, SB-11 exhibited a 6% and 9% higher palatability along with 8% and 11% higher milk production than Anmol and Berseem Agaiti, respectively. Additionally, 20 March surpassed the rest of the cutting dates by exhibiting 7%, 23%, 50% and 207% more seed yield than 10 March, 30 March, 9 April and 19 April, respectively, indicating quite a pronounced effect of the last cutting management on the seed production potential of Egyptian clover. The research findings suggest SB-11 as a promising genotype for bridging the nutritive gap of quality feed (forage and hay) for buffaloes along with addressing the seed production challenge of Egyptian clover.