This publication is based on a number of global, regional and country studies written by various authors, who are acknowledged in the text. Particular thanks are due to the organizers of the Fifth Meeting of the FAO-sponsored Temperate Asia Pasture Working Group, held in Wangdue, Bhutan, in 2002, which brought together agronomists and extension workers from the Himalaya, Hindu Kush and Tibetan Plateau area. This resulted in the formation of a Fodder Oat Network to stimulate further work on fodder oats, which laid the foundations for this book. The Oat-Vetch Network in the Maghreb countries has also produced interesting and valuable oat and vetch studies. In locating and contacting authors to prepare papers, the following provided much appreciated assistance: Dr John Valentine, IGER, Aberystwyth, Wales, UK; Christopher Green, Semundo Ltd., Cambridge, UK; Professor Pirjo Peltonen-Sainio, Plant Production Research, Jokioinen, Finland; Joel Bagg, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Canada; the late Dr Solomon Kibite, AFFC Lacombe, Alberta, Canada, a well respected oat breeder, both nationally and internationally; Paulo César de Faccio Carvalho, Faculdade de Agronomia - UFRGS, Porto Alegre, Brazil; Dr Tomoyuki Kawashima, National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science, Ibaraki, Japan; Fawzi Taher, FAO Regional Office, Cairo, Egypt; Duane McCartney, Lacombe Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Alberta, Canada; and ongoing assistance has been received both with germplasm, contacts and advice, as well as companionship on field visits in Bhutan, Nepal and Tibet from oat breeder Keith Armstrong, New Zealand Institute for Crop and Food Research Limited, Christchurch, New Zealand.
The authors of Chapter III acknowledge the assistance of Cathy Moore, Librarian, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lacombe, Alberta, in locating publications, and appreciate the editorial comments provided by Adele Depalme. Permission from Dr Bob Rees, formerly Principal Plant Pathologist at Queensland DPI, to use the image of Septoria blotch in Chapter XII is gratefully acknowledged, as well as the assistance of Allen Hibberd, Michael Cahill and Dr Leonard Song, Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Gem Tinley kindly provided additional oat germplasm data from Bhutan while Tsering Gyeltshen was studying in Australia.
Photographs, unless otherwise acknowledged, have been supplied by the authors of each chapter or by the editors. Lucie Herzigova assisted with finalization of a number of the figures, and cover design was by Studio Bartoleschi, Rome. Cover photographs are by Stephen Reynolds. Final editing for consistency of language and style, and preparation for publication, was by Thorgeir Lawrence.