World Status of Oats and Biological Constraints to Increased Production

Abstract

The title of this paper tends to convey a negative feeling about oat production, and this scepticism, in a historical sense, is probably justified. After all, oat hectareage world wide has decreased by half during the past 30 years (Fig. 1), from 53,671,000 hectares in 1954 to 26,588,000 hectares in 1983(1). Furthermore, it is readily apparent that biological and environmental constraints to production abound in many oat-growing regions of the world based on the fact that ‘high-yielding’ countries have average grain yields as high as 4,000 to 4,600 kg/ha. As conscientious oat workers, I suggest that we approach this topic in a positive sense, and I will proceed as though the title of this paper was ‘Genetic and Production Improvements in Oats, and Biological Opportunities for Increased Production’.