AN increase in human population in the developing world has resulted in a concomitant increase in small and large ruminants. This has resulted in severe competition between crops and animals and ha!. led to an increasing demand for forage resources, generally on land of lower production capability. In northern Australia the cattle population has increased substantially as a result of new technologies such as new forage species and animal supplementation. This has pUI increasing pressure on rangelands in that region. In addition, the increase in interest in crop agronomy that occurred in Australia during the 19705 has resulted in a fall~off in the number of scientists involved in pasture and forage research. Australia has a comparative advantage in pasture and forage research in that the country is generally covered by poor soils and has an unreliable climate. This has led to the need to introduce forage species into Australia to build up its animal industry. Early efforts by Australians in forage development in the developing world were hampered by the idea that pastures are grazed. Clearly, in areas of high population density other management strategies, such as cut-and-carry, are an important part of the production system. The ACIAR Forage Program considers a wide range of forage alternatives.
Goals
The Forage Program is coordinated via a Liaison Project and serves as an interface between the animal and plant production programs and soil management and plant nutrition. The major focus of the program is the adaptation of forage plants to particular niches within production systems in Southeast Asia, the South Pacific and South Asia. Research and development projects there are supported by a newsletter and information network. The overall goal of the Program is to produce forages at little or no cost, and this production should compete minimally with food crops. This means that production of forages is usually confined to marginal soils which creates special problems for their growth and persistence. Forage production should be part of a sustainable agricultural system and, in this regard, the Forage Program has close linkages with the soils and plant nutrition programs. In the area of acid soil development and management, the Forage Program is undertaking studies of plant adaptation to infertile soil conditions. This is complemented by studies of the chemical constraints to plant productivity being undertaken in the soils program.