TOLERA FIKADU*, WUBISHET TESFAYE, WORKU BEKUMA AND MELESE FURGASA
Oromia Agricultural Research Institute, Fedis Agricultural Research Center, Harar, Ethiopia
*(e-mail : tolerafekadu7@gmail.com)
(Received : 9 February 2022; Accepted : 30 March 2022)

SUMMARY

The experiment was undertaken at midlands and highland agro-ecologyies of East Hararghe zone. The aim of the research was to determine the forage dry matter yield and quality of four lines of Desho grass (Pennisetum pedicellatum) to select promising lines for wider use among livestock producer communities. Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four replications was used. The combined analysis revealed that, the agronomic performance of ground cover, plant height, dry matter yield in ton per hectare and dry matter leaf to stem ratio were not differ significantly (P>0.05) between four Desho grass lines at midland agro ecology while plant height, dry matter yield in ton per hectare and dry matter leaf to stem ratio were not differ significantly (P>0.05). Tiller number per plant was the only parameter which was significantly different at both agro ecologies. Combined data analysis also revealed that forage nutritional quality significantly varied among the desho grass lines. Even though, the dry matter yield in ton per hectare was not differ significantly (P>0.05) among the desho grass lines, large amount of dry matter yield in ton per hectare of 25.43- 28.72 and 24.51-25.06 t/ha was produced at mid and highland agroecology, respectively. Therefore, all lines of Desho grasses were well adapted and performed good under midland and highland condition of east Hararghe zone and in similar environments/agro ecologies. Thus, these Desho grass lines should be further demonstrated and scaled-up at midland and highland agro ecologies and similar agro-ecologies of Hararghe areas.

Key words: Desho grass, dry matter yield, leaf to stem ratio, ground cover, plant height, tiller number

480-486

MEHAK NAGORA*, SHWETA, MEENA SEWHAG, KAUTILYA CHAUDHARY, NITIN BHARDHWAJ, SATPAL AND SUMIT BHARDWAJ
Department of Agronomy, Department of Soil Science
CCS Haryana Agricultural University Hisar-125004 (Haryana), India
*(e-mail : mehaknagora4@gmail.com)
(Received : 1 March 2022; Accepted : 21 March 2022)

SUMMARY

Animal husbandry and agriculture are inextricably linked in India. It is critical to the socio-economic development of millions of rural households, consequently making a significant contribution to the national economy. Livestock is a significant source of revenue and employs 8.8% of the workforce and supports two-thirds of the rural community. Thus, improving the livestock industry implies accelerating rural India’s economic development. The most prevalent and persistent difficulty of dairy sector is limited access to high-quality feed throughout the year, but especially during the essential lengthy dry season. Traditional legume and non-legume crop rotations as well as crop and animal integration have been phased out in favour of a single crop for grain production, negatively impacting soil health in a number of places around the country. Due to continual changes in cropping patterns and the development of HYV of rice and wheat, the opportunity for fodder production is dwindling. Land is under severe pressure to produce food for human consumption. In this regard, an experiment was conducted on wheat crop during rabi season, 2019-20 at CCS Haryana agricultural university, Hisar, Haryana. The comparison was made between the three treatments of mulches (M₁– No mulch, M₂– Rice straw mulch @ 6 t/ha and M3- Plastic mulch) and six wheat varieties (V₁– WH 1142, V₂– WH 1105, V₃– HD 2967, V₄– WH 1184, V₅– HD 3086 and V₆– WH 1124) to make the nutritional evaluation of straw of wheat so that it can be used as livestock feed also. Based on the findings, it is concluded that combined use of mulches and competitive varieties is one of the agronomic practices that has potential to sustainably increase the straw yield. It can be suggested as better tool to gain fodder advantage under prevalent cropping system without compromising the grain production.

Key words: Wheat varieties, straw, NPK Content, NPK uptake and soil health

487-493

STANLEY KOMBRA, K. S. AHLAWAT, CHHAVI SIROHI, K. K. BHARDWAJ, CHARAN SINGH, SNEH YADAV AND RITAMBHARA
Eastern highlands province, P. O. Box 112, Goroka 441, Papua New Guinea
Department of Forestry, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar-125004 (Haryana), India
Department of Soil Science, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar-125004 (Haryana), India
*(e-mail : stkombra@yahoo.com)
(Received : 7 February 2022; Accepted : 19 March 2022)

SUMMARY

A field experiment was conducted to study the effect of eucalypts-based agroforestry system intercropped with berseem and oat on soil moisture status. In this study, the available soil moisture content increased substantially at different distances from tree line (1.5, 2.5 and 3.5 m). Minimum soil moisture content (5.4%) was recorded under berseem intercropped with eucalypts at 0-15 cm soil depth before 7^th irrigation at 1.5 m distance from the tree line; however, maximum moisture content (24.8%) was found at 30-45 cm soil depth after 7 days of 1^st irrigation in sole berseem (without tree). In an oat-eucalypts cropping system, minimum soil moisture content (6.5%) was observed at 0-15 cm soil depth before 3^rd irrigation at 1.5 m distance from the tree line, while the maximum moisture content (26.2%) was recorded at 30-45 cm soil depth after 7 days of 1^st irrigation. The moisture content also showed an increasing trend with the increase in soil depths.

Key words: Eucalypts, berseem, oat, soil moisture, irrigation, tree line distance

494-498

K. SHAMINI*, K. N. GANESAN, T. EZHILARASI AND B. MEENA KUMARI
Department of Forage Crops, Centre for Plant Breeding and Genetics
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore-641 003
*(e-mail : kshamini93@gmail.com)
(Received : 12 February 2022; Accepted : 29 March 2022)

SUMMARY

Guinea grass (Panicum maximum Jacq.), which is originated from Africa, was introduced to India. It plays a major role in livestock productivity due to its higher biomass and shorter duration. In considering the livestock productivity, intensive research on guinea grass was initiated and up on exploration from different parts of India, a total of 150 genotypes were conserved. Out of which, 75 germplasm accessions were studied to assess their genetic diversity for various biometric traits viz., plant height, number of tillers, leaf length, leaf weight, leaf stem ratio and green fodder yield. The analysis of variance was highly significant for the traits plant height, number of tillers, leaf length, leaf weight and green fodder yield which revealed the presence of genetic variability among the 75 genotypes. By using the tocher method of genetic diversity analysis, 75 genotypes were grouped into 15 clusters, thereby indicating the greater genetic diversity in the explored genetic materials. The numbers of genotypes were more in cluster 1 which consists of 29 genotypes followed by cluster 3 and 5 which includes 13 and 11 genotypes respectively. The inter cluster distances were greater than the intra cluster distances, which indicates that the genotypes selected for breeding from different clusters will be genetically diverse. The intra cluster distance were more in cluster 14 followed by 8 and 5. The genetically more divergent genotypes were present in cluster 15 and 3 as evident from the inter cluster distance value of 8.75. It is concluded that an intensive selection applied on the genotypes selected from divergent clusters would enable the breeders to develop guinea grass varieties with enhanced green fodder yield and quality.

Key words: Guinea grass, Diversity, Tocher method

499-503

SATYAJEET*, SATPAL, AMARJEET NIBHORIA AND JITENDER KUMAR
CCS HAU, Regional Research Station, Bawal -123501 (Haryana), India
Forage Section, Department of Genetics & Plant Breeding, CCS Haryana Agricultural University,
Hisar-125004 (Haryana), India
*(e-mail : sjeet.hau@gmail.com)
(Received : 31 January 2022; Accepted : 17 March 2022)

SUMMARY

Oat is highly palatable, nutritious and energy rich fodder and can be fed to animals either in the form of green fodder or after converting into good quality hay/silage. Farmers’ participatory front line demonstrations on integrated crop management (ICM) practices and traditional method of sowing as farmers’ practice (FP) were conducted during Rabi (2016-17 to 2018-19) under CCS, HAU, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Fatehabad and Jhajjar, Haryana. The study reveals that on an average 584 q/ha green fodder yield of oat (Multi-cut fodder oat variety HJ 8) was recorded under ICM as compare to 526 q/ha in FP which was 11.03 per cent higher over that of the FP. The pooled value of extension gap, technology gap and technology index was to the tune of 58, 66 q/ha and 10 percent, respectively. The data on economic parameters reveals that a net return of Rs. 21346 per ha was in ICM compare to Rs.14940 per ha in FP. The benefit-cost (B:C) ratio was figured 1:1.49 and 1:1.34 in ICM and FP, respectively, suggesting the higher profitability and economic viability of the technology demonstrated.

Key words: Oat, ICM, green fodder yield, gap analysis, economics and BC ratio

504-506

AKSHAY PAREEK*, SATYAJEET, SATPAL, SUMIT BHARDWAJ AND MEHAK NAGORA
Department of Agronomy, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar-125 004 (Haryana), India
Department of Agronomy, CCS HAU Regional Research Station, Bawal (Haryana), India
Forage Section, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, CCS Haryana Agricultural University,
Hisar-125004 (Haryana), India
*(e-mail : akshaypareek.999@hau.ac.in)
(Received : 2 March 2022; Accepted : 30 March 2022)

SUMMARY

The present investigation was carried out to study the effects of varieties and fertility levels on growth, fodder yield and nutrients of summer greengram. The experiment was comprised of three varieties viz., V₁– MH-421, V₂– MH-318 and V₃– SML-668 as main plot treatment and four different fertility levels viz., T₁ – Control, T₂ – 100% RDF (20:40:0 kg/ha NPK), T₃ – 75% RDF (inorganic) + 25% N/ha (FYM) + seed treatment (Rhizobium + PSB) and T₄ – 50% RDF (inorganic) + 50% N/ha (FYM) + seed treatment (Rhizobium + PSB) as sub plot treatments. Experiment was laid out in split plot design with four replications. Summer greengram variety, MH-318 recorded significantly dry matter accumulation (g/plant) over SML-668 and MH-421 at 30 DAS (1.72), 45 DAS (9.01) and at harvest (15.5). MH-318 also exhibited significantly higher nitrogen (3.73, 2.27) and phosphorus (0.40, 0.28) content in grain and straw respectively as compared to SML-668 and MH-421. However, no significant variation was found concerning potassium content in grain as well as straw. NPK uptake in grain and straw was found significantly higher under MH-318 over SML-668 and MH-421. Higher protein content (23.3%) and straw yield (3020 kg ha-1) were recorded under MH-318 in comparison to other two varieties. Among fertility level treatments, 75% RDF (inorganic) + 25% N/ha (FYM) + seed treatment (Rhizobium + PSB) recorded significantly higher dry matter accumulation over other treatments. NPK content & uptake, protein content (23.7%) and straw yield (3395 kg ha-1) was also significantly higher with the application of 75% RDF (inorganic) + 25% N/ha (FYM) + seed treatment (Rhizobium + PSB) over 50% N/ha (FYM) + seed treatment (Rhizobium + PSB), 100% RDF (20:40:0 kg/ha NPK) and control. Thus, the variety MH-318 should be fertilized with 75% RDF (inorganic) + 25% N/ha (FYM) + seed treatment (Rhizobium + PSB) to obtain grain & straw yield and economic returns of summer greengram.

Key words: Fertility, fodder, nutrients, variety, protein content

507-512

SEVA NAYAK DHEERAVATHU, PRABHA SINGH, SRINIVASAN RAMAKRISHNAN AND VIJAY KUMAR YADAV
ICAR- Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute, Jhansi-284003 (Uttar Pradesh), India
*(e-mail : sevanayak2005@gmail.com)
(Received : 3 March 2022; Accepted : 30 March 2022)

SUMMARY

Temperature manipulation experiments are effective ways for testing plant responses to future climate conditions, especially for predicting shifts in plant phenological events. There is little available information about the effect of elevated temperature on morpho-physiological parameters and green fodder yield of fodder crops. To identify fodder crops with high green fodder yield suitable for elevated temperature, proper screening technique is needed. Forage oat is an important annual forage cereal crop. It was grown in ambient as well as elevated (>2 oC than ambient) temperatures at vegetative to reproductive stage in open top chambers. Elevated temperature decreased oat plant height. Days to 50% flowering was shortened under elevated temperature compared to ambient condition. Standardized Open Top Chamber facility is more useful for screening number of varieties in oat and other forage crops for temperature stress tolerance and to address the demand of fodder seed production at present and future as well.

Key words: Ambient, elevated temperature, oat, open top chamber

513-516