Alfalfa: directions and results of breeding

Abstract

Purpose. Generalization of the results of breeding work with alfalfa (Medisago L.) based on many years of foreign and domestic research. Methods. Monitoring, system analysis, economic-mathematical approach, statistical and monographic. Results. The main areas of breeding alfalfa are presented, including increasing seed productivity, nitrogen fixation, and resistance to adverse abiotic (wintering conditions, drought, increased soil acidity) and biotic (pathogens, diseases and pests) factors, improving feed quality, and creating transgenic plants. The results of the multi-year selection work carried out by the Institute of Feed Research and Agriculture of Podillia of NAAS on the creation of alfalfa seed varieties tolerant to increased soil acidity, have been concretized. The research results on the population variability of self-incompatibility of alfalfa plants evaluation are given, which made it possible to develop a plan for creating synthetic varieties with increased and stable level of heterosis of feed and seed productivity traits. Conclusions. Alfalfa is a valuable feed crop that occupies a leading position among perennial legumes. There are a number of challenges for this culture that need to be solved through breeding. Laboratory and field methods of evaluating alfalfa resistance to aluminum and increased soil acidity were developed due to which the Sinyuha and Radoslav alfalfa varieties were created and introduced into production. This technique contributes to: achieving a relatively high level of feed and seed productivity in combination with plant tolerance to increased soil acidity and other negative environmental factors; the expansion of the zone of optimal cultivation of alfalfa seeds in Ukraine significantly north of the previously defined limits; minimization or complete exclusion of specific negative factors, taking into account the biological and morphological features of the available starting material when creating alfalfa varieties and hybrids.