The behavior of new varieties of alfalfa under the conditions of 2024

Mihaela Popa¹, Maria Schitea ², Elena Petcu¹, Matilda Ciucă¹, Daniel Cristina ¹
Margareta Naie ³, Călin Sălceanu ⁴, Iulia Vărzaru⁵

¹NARDI Fundulea
²AAFS Bucuresti
³ ARDS Secuieni
⁴ARDS Caracal
⁵ NRDIABN Baloteşti

Keywords: alfalfa, biotic and abiotic stress, low temperatures, drought,molecular markers.

Abstract: Alfalfa is the most important forage crop in Romania. The main objectives in alfalfa breeding   are: improving quality, dry matter yield,as well as biotic and abiotic stress tolerance. Abiotic stress   conditions cause extensive losses to agricultural production worldwide, especially in perennial crops, like alfalfa. Climatic changes will lead to severe drought conditions and aridization of some important regions in Romania, especially in the south part of the country, as it happened in 2024. Under these conditions, 9 new varieties of alfalfa were studied in term of production, quality and tolerance to low temperatures and drought. In order to shorten the breeding process, this year also started works that include the selection assisted by molecular markers. The exeperiments were in the first year of vegetation, they were installed in the spring of 2024 and will be studied and in the next 2 years.