A Selective Breeding Program to Improve the Water-Use Efficiency and Nutritive Acceptability of Kochia as a Forage Grazing Crop

Through selection, slow progress is being made for lower oxalate and alkaloid levels in Kochia scoparia. Oxalate and alkaloid contents varied considerably under different environments. Kochia can thrive at salt levels of irrigation water up to one-third that of salt water, making it a high potential crop where the underground water is brackish. Several phenotypic plant characteristics were observed but none were stabilized in a true breeding line.