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Climate change and global warming are the foremost anthropogenically accelerated catastrophes that are already causing world-wide challenges, but threaten to thwart global food, environmental and nutritional security in the future. Climate change affects ecosystem services and interactions between biotic and abiotic factors. The most drastic consequences have been observed in the agricultural and livestock sector, with diminished production and productivity potential. Agriculture and allied sectors contribute markedly to the production of greenhouse gases; however, integrated management practices can be used to curtail greenhouse gas emissions and its adverse impacts. Forage crops and their wild relatives maintain biodiversity and ecosystem services and minimise the drastic effects of climate change. Forage crops adapted to harsh environments have certain unique features such as perenniality, deep root system, high resource-use efficiency (light, nutrients and water), and low production of methane and N2O, making them suitable for future use under climate change. This review highlights the prominent features of various cultivated and rangeland forage crops that may be crucial to understanding impacts of climate change. We discuss the wild relatives of forage crops, which are often adapted for multiple stresses, and highlight their mechanisms for adaptation under climate change. We consider the advanced breeding and biotechnological tools useful for developing climate-smart forage crops. This review provides novel insight into forage crops and their wild relatives in terms of their exploitation in future stress breeding programmes and paths for developing climate-resilient crops. Climate change substantially affects the global food, environmental and nutritional security, as well as biodiversity and ecosystem services. Wild relatives of forage crops and their functional trait diversity can be exploited for future stress breeding programs and development of climate-resilient crops. Forage crops could be used to curtail emission of greenhouse gases and improve resource-use efficiency (light, nutrients and water) in degraded land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment of the relative performance of white clover (Trifolium repens L.) cultivars, using multi-year and multi-location seasonal growth trials, is key to identification of material with specific and broad adaptation. This paper is based on a multi-year and multi-location study of 56 white clover entries comprising 14 commercial cultivars and 42 experimental synthetic lines evaluated for seasonal growth under rotational grazing across four locations in New Zealand over 4 years. The four locations (and animals grazing) were: Kerikeri (beef cattle), Aorangi (beef cattle), Ruakura (dairy cattle), Lincoln (sheep). Significant (P < 0.05) genotypic variation among the 56 entries, and genotype × year, genotype × location and genotype × season interactions, were estimated. We were able to identify cultivars and experimental synthetics with specific and broad adaptation to the three grazing management types. Cvv. AberDance, Apex, Demand, Prestige, Quartz and Riesling, with leaf size ranging from small to medium–large, showed highly above-average performance under sheep grazing. Synthetic lines 15 and 45 also had highly above-average performance under sheep grazing. Cvv. Legacy and Kopu II showed above-average performance under cattle and dairy grazing. Synthetics 15, 48, 49, 44, 22 and 18 and cv. Quartz had above-average performance under all three grazing managements. Synthetics 27, 33 and 38 had highly above-average performance across all three grazing managements and were superior to all 14 cultivars evaluated. Several of these superior synthetics are being tested across multiple grazing environments. Among the 14 cultivars evaluated, Legacy and Quartz showed superior seasonal growth performance across the three grazing managements. Quartz is being evaluated in several on-farm trials across temperate regions of the world. Fourteen white clover cultivars and 42 experimental synthetics were evaluated for seasonal growth under beef cattle, dairy cattle and sheep grazing across 4 years. Entries with specific and broad adaptation to the three grazing management types were identified. Cv. Legacy was more responsive to cattle and dairy grazing, and cv. Quartz to sheep grazing. Synthetics with specific and highly above-average performance across all three grazing managements, superior to the cultivars, were identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]