DIGVIJAY SINGH
National Dairy Development Board, Anand-388001 (Gujarat), India
*(e-mail: dsingh@nddb.coop)
(Received : 24 August, 2023; Accepted : 23 September, 2023)
SUMMARY
The field experiment was to evaluate 14 fodder cowpea varieties for their seed yield, fodder yields, nutrient content in seed and proximate parameters in green fodder & crop residues after seed harvest.Significantly highest seed yield (MT/ha) was recorded in cowpea variety UPC 4200 (0.908) in comparison to many varieties but statistically at par with varieties viz. UPC 9202 (0.869), UPC 621 (0.885), UPC 618 (0.798), UPC 628 (0.743), BL-1 (0.781) and check variety EC 4216 (0.781). Seed yield (MT/ha) in cowpea varieties ranged between 0.607-0.908.In seed, N % was higher in UPC 625 (4.34), whereas, P % was found to be significantly higher (0.59) in seed of two cowpea varieties GFC-4 & GFC-1. Ca % was found to be significantly higher (0.12) in seed of three varieties viz. GFC-1, Kohinoor and BL-1. In cowpea varieties seed, macro-nutrients K, Mg and S varied between 1.15-1.27 %, 0.17- 0.22 % and 0.19-0.23 %, respectively, whereas,micro-nutrient varied between 1.15-1.27 ppm, 5.00-5.99 ppm, 0.19-0.23 ppm and 0.17-0.22 ppm, respectively for Fe, Cu, Mn and Zinc, respectively. Cowpea varieties non-significantly varied for green fodder, dry fodder and crude protein yields between 12.51-17.22 MT/ha, 2.88-4.33 MT/ha and 0.48-0.73 MT/ha, respectively. Among cowpea varieties, crude protein %, crude fat %, crude fibre %, and silica % ranged between 14.58-18.62, 0.50-2.45, 22.92-36.89 and 0.43-1.36 in green fodder and 8.10-10.30, 0.54-2.94, 35.88-42.56 and 1.01-2.57 in crop residues after seed harvest, respectively.
Key words: fodder cowpea, variety, seed yield, straw yield, nutrient, proximate