RUKOO CHAWLA, ATMAN POONIA,* AND SURESH KUMAR
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, MPUAT, Udaipur, India
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, 3Department of Agronomy,
CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, (Haryana) India-125004
*(e-mail : atmanpoonia@gmail.com)
(Received : 25 November 2021; Accepted : 15 February 2022)
SUMMARY
Oat is a dual-purpose Rabi cereal that emerged as a valuable crop because of its utilization as quality fodder for livestock. The multi-cut nature of oat crop with high regeneration capacity, fast-growing plant habit, palatable, succulent and nutritious fodder make it more suitable for livestock sustainability. In recent years, the grain component of oat gained accelerative attention due to its growing popularity as healthy food and ultimately in the food industry. The potential nutritional characteristics, health promoting and therapeutics benefits offered by oat grains make it “super-grain” as it contains all the principle nutritional components including carbohydrates, protein, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and soluble fibre. The expansion of cultivated area under forage crops is not possible due to pressure of more remunerative and commercial crops like rice, wheat and barley. Therefore, the alternative way to meet the demand for quality fodder is through increasing productivity. Earlier oat was grown by farmers solely as fodder crop but more focus is to tailor dual-purpose (forage-cum-grain) oat genotypes adaptable under changing climatic conditions. The dual-purpose oat presents extra advantage of the nutritional value of the crop for human consumption as well as burgeoning livestock production.
Key words: Beta-glucan, dual-purpose, forage, oat, sustainability