Y. JINDAL* AND SATPAL
Department of Genetics & Plant Breeding
CCS Haryana Agricultural University,
Hisar-125 004 (Haryana), India
*(e-mail : yjindalhau@gmail.com)
(Received : 12 September 2020; Accepted 28 September 2020)
SUMMARY
A varietal evaluation trial on perennial Cenchrus ciliaris (Buffel grass) was conducted at 13 locations under three different agro-ecological zones viz. North-western (NW), Central (CZ) and South (SZ) zones of India from 2016-17 to 2018-19. Six genotypes of Cenchrus ciliaris were evaluated along with three national checks viz. CAZRI 75, IGFRI 3108 and IGFRI 727 for assessing their fodder yield potential and quality parameters at CCS HAU, Hisar. The same set of entries was also tested at thirteen different locations distributed in the three zones for fodder trial. The highest green fodder yield pooled over three years (1317.2 q/ha) was recorded at Coimbatore in south zone followed by Urulikanchan (437.3 q/ha) in the central zone and in Hisar, Haryana (388.2 q/ha) whereas, the highest pooled dry matter yield (233.8 q/ha) was recorded at Coimbatore in south zone followed by Urulikanchan (195.8 q/ha) and Hisar (91.1 q/ha) in the central zone. Highest per day productivity of green fodder pooled over three years was recorded at Hisar, Ludhiana and Jhansi (GFY (q/ha/day – 4.03, 3.27 and 3.0, respectively) in different zones. The national check CAZRI 75 gave highest green fodder yield (543.5 q/ha) and the genotype IG-67-365 gave highest dry fodder yield (400.8 q/ha) pooled over three years. The highest crude protein yield pooled over three years was obtained at Urulikanchan (12.1 q/ha) followed by Anand (7.2 q/ha) and Hisar (5.3 q/ha). Top two genotypes that gave the best crude protein yield are IG-67-365 (6.0 q/ha) and the best check CAZRI 75 (5.5 q/ha) pooled over three years. Cenchrus ciliaris genotype RCCB-03-23 gave In vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD%) pooled over three years (53.9%) which is almost at a par with the best check IGFRI 3108 (53.7%). At Hisar, the Cenchrus ciliaris genotype RCCB-04-3 gave Neutral Detergent Fiber (66.8%) as compared to the best check IGFRI 3108 (69.1%). The genotype RCCB-03-23 gave Acid Detergent Fiber (ADF%) (42.5%) as compared to the best check IGFRI 3108 (43.5%). A close look at the data reveals that Southern zone gave higher green fodder and dry matter yields, plant height and production efficiency thereby indicating that climatic and edaphic conditions are very suitable for Cenchrus ciliarisas compared to Central Zone and North West Zone.
Key words:Cenchrus ciliaris, buffel grass, green fodder, dry matter, quality parameters