Germplasm Collection of Alfalfa (Medicago Sativa L.) in Oman

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) is a very important leguminous perennial fodder crop in the Sultanate of Oman, the neighboring gulf, and other countries where it is regarded as part of farm life. The paper presents the salient results of series of alfalfa germplasm collection missions across all the governorates of Oman. It also includes the pattern of variations in seed characters existing in as many as 67 alfalfa accessions, collected. Of these, the highest number of accessions were from Eastern / Al-Sharqiyah governorates (25) followed by 20 from Interior/ Al-Dakhliyah governorate, 8 each from North Batinah and Dhahira & Buraimi governorates, 6 from South Batinah governorate and none from Dhofar governorate in the south part of Oman. The seed accessions showed wide variations in respect to all seed characters studied, i.e. seed length (cm) and width (cm), 1000-seed weight (g) and seed nature & color. All the accessions were heterogeneous (mixture) having seeds of various colors, i.e. tan, greenish yellow, dark yellow, brown, dark brown. The diversity of alfalfa seed accessions with respect to seed characteristics and their genetic erosion have been discussed in relation to geographic diversity and socio-cultural factors.