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Evaluation of five pearl millet varieties for yield and forage quality under two planting densities in the Sahel

OAR@ICRISAT

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Relation http://oar.icrisat.org/6120/
http://dx.doi.org/10.5897/AJAR11.1569
 
Title Evaluation of five pearl millet varieties for yield and forage quality under two planting densities in the Sahel
 
Creator Pasternak, D
Ibrahim, A
Augustine, A
 
Subject Millets
 
Description In the Sahel that is typified by an agro-pastoral system and a long dry season between rains, the availability of animal feed is a very serious constraint. The objectives of this study were to identify pearl millet varieties with high forage productivity under rainfed conditions in the Sahel; to identify best planting densities and to find physiological mechanisms conducive to high forage productivity in pearl millet. The experiment was carried out at the ICRISAT Sadore Research Center in Niger during the 2006 rainy season. Five long duration varieties (Malgorou, Batchoudine, Sanioba, Yabo Maiwa and Somno Damari) as forage crops were compared at two planting densities (10,000 and 20,000 hills/ha). Dry matter yield and forage quality was assessed at the boot, anthesis and at the soft dough stages. The higher planting density gave in this year higher dry matter (and grain) yield than the lower density. The dough stage was the most suitable stage for harvest because dry matter was at its highest. However, organic matter digestibility and crude protein are higher at the boot stage compared with the dough stage. The Malgorou variety gave the highest dry matter yield at the dough stage (8.57 tons/ha at the high planting density). The high forage productivity of this variety was attributed to the longer growing period of time before anthesis and the bigger number of tillers. The results of this study demonstrated that long duration varieties of pearl millet can become an important source of forage in the Sahel under rainfed conditions.
 
Publisher Academic Publishers
 
Date 2012
 
Type Article
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
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Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/6120/1/AJAR_7_32_4526-4535_2012.pdf
Pasternak, D and Ibrahim, A and Augustine, A (2012) Evaluation of five pearl millet varieties for yield and forage quality under two planting densities in the Sahel. African Journal of Agricultural Research, 7 (32). pp. 4526-4535. ISSN 1991-637X