Abstract

Oat is grown in all parts of Tibet and most of them are wild types of geno types. Extensive investigation on oat genetic resources revealed that there are 11 different sub-species of oat in Tibet. This diverse biodiversity of oat crop and natural condition in Tibet provides ample opportunity to promote oat as fodder and food crop. Research is underway to select suitable varieties for fodder and food production under different conditions. Crossbreeding between oat and wheat was undertaken to develop a new variety which yielding, wide adaptation and resistance to diseases.

Oat Genetic Resources in Tibet

Oat is an ancient crop, and it has been generally accepted that oat was originated from China. Short growing period and widely adapted to different types of soil, climates and ecological condition are the main characteristics of oat. Though it is harsh condition of the climate with the high altitude of Tibet, oat is growing all parts of Tibet. Wild types of oat are the commonly seen in Tibet.

In 1981, during the collection of oat genetic resources in Shannan Prefecture, cultivated type of variety was not found but wild types of oat was found widely in this area. It is distributed in the area where the altitude is below 4500 masl. During this collection and inventory, 11 sub-species of wild oat were reported. Many of these sub-species were transitional types of wild oat from covered seed to naked seed. In 1982, not only many wild types of oat were found but also many cultivated types of oat were found in Changdu prefecture in eastern part of Tibet. It was reported that these types of cultivated oats had been growing in the Jiangda county of Tibet for many years. The main characteristics of these cultivated types of oat were naked seed, but most of the small spike was close to wild type with twisted long awn.  With further evaluation and appraisal, it was concluded that these new sub-species (mutations) were evolved directly from primitive wild types of oat. In addition, in the BuoMi, ZuoGong County, another types of wild oat, which was, tight spike with small spike handle was found.

Main achievements and status of research on oat genetic resources in Tibet

 Extensive investigation and collection

During 1981~1984, large-scale investigation and collection of oat genetic sub-species of oat and its relative were found. Among them, 161 oaten species were belonging to Avena fatua, 5 of them were H.virescens of Helietotrichon von, and 4 of them were belonging to close relative of oat.

 Main Progresses and achievement

Along with the extensive collection and inventory of oat genetic resources, extensive research on oat genetic resources had been carried out.

It was concluded that there were 11 different sub-species of oat in Tibet and research on the identification of cultivated types of oat were conducted. 

Meanwhile, research on crossbreeding of oat was carried out. Crossbreeding between wild oat and winter wheat was done and new variety called FY-8 was developed, which has characteristics of strong diseases resistance, widely adapted, good quality of seed and well performed yield. At presently, many farmers in Tibet are cultivating it. Research on oat and durum wheat was also conducted to improve the wheat seed quality.

Distribution of oat genetic resources in Tibet

Wild oats in Tibet is locally called “ You Bu". It is widely distributed in Tibet. It is annual crop with high stem and seed falls naturally when it is matured. Great adaptability and strong reproductive make it very widely distributed wild weed for farming in Tibet. It can be seen near by the field, in the farm field, along the road and in some grassland field. Its wide spread is mainly human-induced because people carry the seed with their grain and other farm products from one place to another. However, naturally developed population of wild oat has not been found in Tibet. With increasing of the altitude, the height of the oat straw reduces, the length of the awn is shortened, seed covered increases, number of the seed reduces, seed get smaller and spike become shorter. Wild oat, which with hairiness at the outside shell of the seed, edge of the leaf and plant stem are extremely widespread.

Most of the Tibet oat is wild types of genotype. They are distributed at the elevation between 2400-4500 meters. Cultivated types of oat are often found in the counties of Jiangda, Gongjue in the eastern parts of Tibet. The upper limit altitude is about 3000 meter.

Classification and distribution of oat in Tibet

In 1753, oat was given the Latin name, as Avena as family under which, there was four species were classified, such as A.nuda L., A.fatua L., and A.sativa.L. and A.steilis L. In 1958, three different species of the oat in China were identified. However, classification of oat species is still debating and some of the Chinese scientist suggested that oat could be classified into 18 different sub-species. Table 2 shows all the sub-species found in Tibet. There were altogether 22 different types.

 Experimental Test on comparing spring wheat, the introduced oat varieties and durum wheat in Tibet

After first year test in Lhasa, three oat varieties such as No. 1, 2, and 3 perform good yield in Lhasa. In order to further select the better cultivars and to use its potential in Tibet, further test on these varieties were carried out. Another aim of this experiment is to see the quality of oat seed through comparing with common wheat and durum wheat.

Durum wheat is rarely grown in Tibet. However, the quality of grain of dominated common wheat varieties is very unfavorable to process into bread and noodle. The main problem lies here is that the protein content of the winter wheat is very low. In most of the area, traditional spring wheat have been replaced by high-yielding winter wheat cultivars. Durum wheat was also introduced to Tibet. New oat varieties were also introduced in recent year. Testing on comparing wheat, introduced oat and durum wheat were then conducted. It was also aimed at improving the wheat grain quality through cross-breeding and mixing the grain into wheat grain so that the overall protein content will be increased. This attempt may not be ideal but protein content in oat seed and durum wheat seed are tending to be much higher than that of winter wheat. Meanwhile, direct use of oat for food and fodder and durum wheat for noodle in Tibet was also set as one of the objective.

Yield performances

Table 3 shows the main result of the test of 3 oat varieties, 5-durum wheat and 2 high-yielding spring wheat cultivars. Yield of all cultivars range from 101.7~236.7 kg/mu. Among all the varieties of three different crop, oat variety No. 2 Yielded about 236.7 kgs/ mus, which was the highest among all varieties tested and it was 78.5% higher that the yield of spring wheat variety – Zangchun No. 6 and 18.9% higher that the yield of Rinong No. 23. The yield of the oat variety No 1 was about 234.33 kg/mu that was 76.6% and 17.8% higher than Zangchun No. 6 and Rinong No 23, respectively. Among the three durum wheat varieties such as No. 291, No. 281, No. 294 and No. 266 Produced 7 – 39% higher yield that the wheat variety Zangchun No 6 and 23- 49 % higher yield than Rinong No 23.

Analysis of variances on yields of these varieties was done. It indicated that there is no apparent variance among the replicates but there are large variances among different varieties. T-test at 0.05 level and 0.01 levels showed that the differentiation of the yield among different crops and different varieties are considerably large. Particularly the yield of oat variety No. 2 and No.1 are significantly higher that most of the varieties of common wheat and durum wheat at 0.05 level. Table 4 and 5 shows result of the analysis of variances of yield and t-test of significance of variation among the yield.   

Agronomic characteristics

All the varieties were sown on the April 20th, most of the varieties matured within 135-150 days. The shortest growing period was the Oat No.2, which was 132, and the common wheat variety-Zangchun No. 6 took longest to mature. It was about 150 days.

 Straw height

The height if the straw of all varieties tested ranged from 68-194.9 cm. The oat No. 3 was the highest and the durum wheat No 5266 was the shortest. Other varieties ranged from 72-190.2 cm.

 Length of the spike

The length of the spike of oat varieties ranged from 20.7 – 25.4 cm. The length of the spike of durum wheat ranged from 5.77 – 7.05 cm.

 Number of kernel in each spike

The number of kernel in each spike of oat varieties ranges from 42 - 97.8. The number of kernel in each spike of durum wheat ranges from 37.4 - 65.4.

1000 kernel weight

The 1000 kernel weight of oat is ranging from 21.9 - 20.9 g. The 1000 kernel weight of durum wheat ranges from 28.6 - 44.4g

Potential of oat as fodder and food crop as compared with common wheat and durum wheat

The experimental tests were conducted during 1999 and 2000. Compared the result of test in 1999, in 2000 all the varieties were sown later to test the suitability of sowing date of those varieties. The above experiment has shown that the general agronomic characteristic of oat is better than durum wheat .The average Yield of all cultivars of oat is higher than durum wheat. According to this experimentation we can conclude that the adaptability of oat is better than durum wheat. Except the No. 3 oat variety had serious lodging at later stage that cause reduction in the yield of it. Oat variety No. 1 and No.2 performed very well in terms of yield and agronomic characteristics and they are suitable for Tibetan condition for fodder production and food production. Durum wheat needs good soil moisture content. When the temperature is high in the spring and it makes lost in soil moisture content, it affect the yield of durum wheat and common wheat. The yield of both durum wheat and common wheat reduced when there was sever drought in springtime. This is mainly because that low soil moisture content reduces the rate of germination of wheat and eventually reduces the yield. But this does normally not affect oat. The yields of oat in different year retain as normal no matter how dry it was in the springtime to some extent. That means these varieties of oat have higher resistance to drought than wheat. Tibet is often very dry in the springtime and if there is no irrigation, there will be major failure in crop yield due to spring drought. In this case, wherever no irrigation, oat can be potential crop to grow as food or fodder purpose. However, there is little understanding on the crop oat. It has been locally known as wild weed and little attempt had been made to promote this crop for fodder and food. Two year experiments on testing different kinds of cultivated oat varieties introduced from outside of Tibet has shown that there is a great potential for oat to be highly adapted fodder crop and food crop if it is properly processed into food item for the market.

Utilization of oat genetic resources in Tibet

Unique biodiversity of oat crop and natural condition in Tibet, provide great opportunity to promote oat as fodder and food crop in Tibet.

Oat as a fodder crop

Farmer often harvests wild oat grown in the field of barley and wheat at different stage. Farmer in most of the areas can easily recognize the young oat plant among the barley and wheat crop. Fresh plant of oat is directly fed to the animal. It is also dried and stored for feed sources during the wintertime. In most of the cases, oat plant is harvested before maturing so that the oat seed will not fall into the field. It is not only for weeding purpose but also for collecting feed for livestock. Dried oat straw is considered as high quality feed for livestock. In many case, farmers use the collected wild-oat plant from the barley or wheat field for animals like horse and milking cows. However, oat has not been widely planted in large scale for fodder for animal. The main reason is that farmer cannot collect enough seed from the wild oat for cultivation for next year. In addition, they think that wild oat is weed and they do not think it can be cultivated for feed. They know that it is good feed sources and keep collecting from the other crop’s field.

In recent year, scientists and agronomists tried to test new cultivated oat varieties introduced from other provinces of China. Some of them have selected suitable varieties for local condition. Selected varieties were planted in different altitude ranges. For example, oat was grown in Naqu prefecture and Damshong county of Lhasa. At the elevation of lower than 4700 m, oat can grow very well for fodder. Because of its highly drought resistances and adaptability to the harsh condition, oat crop shows its great potential as fodder crop for higher altitude under the pastoral and agro-pastoral system. One of the main constraints in developing livestock in pastoral areas of Tibet is shortage in feed during the wintertime. Those counties that practiced to grow oat as fodder crop in high elevation have experienced that oat is very promising fodder crop for feed production. In the areas where large area of cultivated land is available but lacking of irrigation, oat as an alternative crop for feed production has been recognized by many farmers and agricultural developer. In Naidong County of Shannan Prefecture, large area of fodder oat introduced from Qinghai provice was grown during 1996-1998. It was aimed to produce feed for livestock production in upper region where sever feed shortage is occurring during the wintertime. In that county, oat was planted during the summer time and harvested in autumn and then processed into silage or chopped into fine pieces that will be then for feed for animals in upper region during winter season.

In recent year, the government has focused on developing livestock in the crop-dominated area in the central Tibet. However, lack of suitable feed crops and poor feed processing confine further development livestock in these region. Barley straw is the main source for feed for animal in many counties during the wintertime. But the quality of the barley straw for animal feed is very poor. Livestock production in many counties has been confined with shortage of feed during the dry season. However, Tibet has vast land. There is scope for feed production. In order to boost up livestock production in Tibet, both government and researcher are looking for possibilities for promoting new feed crop. Introduction and testing new fodder crop such as oat and corn is underway. Fodder oat will be promoted in some region. But appropriate varsities that adapt to the local condition are precondition for promoting oat crop as fodder.

Another concern of the local government is to develop livestock in pastoral area. Overgrazing due to low carrying capacity of the rangeland in Tibet and increase in the population of livestock is occurring. One of the main approaches taken by the local government has been to promote adaptive and high-yielding fodder crop for the region. Oat, in this sense, has its great advantage of wide adaptation and cold resistance over the high and cold climate condition in high altitude areas of Tibet.

Transformation of agricultural development from subsistence farming system to market oriented system is underway. Major policy to restructure the agricultural production is adopting. Purely grain production based agricultural development pattern is changing into a combination of cash crop, grain crop and fodder crop. Oat as of the potential crop for high quality fodder will be promoted in wider range of area wherever it is adapted to cultivate. Selection of good varieties is essential. Above experiments suggested good variety can be selected for most of the areas of Tibet through introduction of new varieties from outside of Tibet.

Oat as food crop

Traditionally oat was a food crop in eastern Tibet. But now it has been no more there. High yield and good adaptability to the local condition, oat has a potential to be food crop in Tibet as well. Beta-glucan content in oat grain provides an opportunity for promoting oat as food crop, particularly as a healthy food crop. Local people may not consume oat as food, but it can be processed into healthy food for inner-land of China. Our experiment during the 1999-2000 showed that oat is well-adapted and high yielding food crop if we select the right varieties and proper management.

Table 3.: Classification of oat in Tibet

Table 5: Analysis of Variance based on the yield result in table 4. t

Table 5: T-test at 0.05 and 0.01 levels for the result in the table 5