ECONOMICS AND VARIETAL PERFORMANCE OF HYBRID NAPIER AND GUINEA GRASS UNDER IRRIGATED CONDITIONS OF NORTHERN KARNATAKA
S. A. BIRADAR*, J. N. SHREEDHAR AND PRALHAD UBHALE
Agrostology Scheme, Main Agricultural Research Station
University of Agricultural Sciences,
Raichur-584 102 (Karnataka), India
*(e-mail : sabiradar1@rediffmail.com)
(Received : 5 August 2014; Accepted : 19 August 2014)
SUMMARY
Less availability of good quality green forages has led to low productivity from national dairy herd. Growing fodder to suit the particular production system is an efficient and economical solution for this problem. Perennial grasses particularly Hybrid Napier and guinea grass are high yielding fodder grasses. Keeping this in view, a field experiment was conducted at Main Agricultural Research Station, Raichur, Karnataka for two subsequent years of 2010-11 and 2011-12 under irrigated conditions in medium black soils having 0.63 per cent organic carbon, 217 kg/ha available nitrogen, 61 kg/ha available phosphorus and 120 kg/ha available potassium with 8.9 pH to explore the performance of perennial grasses under irrigated condition. The treatments comprised six Hybrid Napier cultivars viz., NB-21, DHN-6, APBN-1, IGFRI-7, Phule Jaywanth and CO-3 and two cultivars of Guinea grass viz., Nadani and Samrudhi. A total of eight treatments were laid out in randomized block design with three replications. The pooled results of two years revealed that Hybrid Napier cv. DHN-6 recorded significantly higher green fodder yield (710 q/ha), however, which was on par with the Hybrid Napier cultivars DHN-6, APBN-1, IGFRI-7, Phule Jaywanth and CO-3. Significantly lower green fodder yield was recorded by NB-21 cultivar (411 q/ha). Among different perennial grasses, the highest net returns (Rs. 55863/ha) and B : C ratio (2.70) were obtained with Hybrid Napier cultivar DHN-6 and closely followed by APBN-1 (Rs. 53449/ha and 2.63). The lowest was with NB-21 cultivar (Rs. 20440/ha and 1.66).
Key words: Perennial grasses, Hybrid Napier, Guinea grass, irrigated conditions, green forage yield