Abstract

Livestock production in Harari region of Ethiopia depends mainly on natural pastures and crop residues which are poor in quality and quantity particularly during dry season. Therefore, it need introduction of alternative improved forages of high quality and quantity which are adapted to the areas. Thus, the activity was conducted at three sites of Harari Region to identify and select the best elephant grass cultivar for dry matter yield (DMY). Four elephant grass cultivars and one local check was evaluated. The treatments were laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Survival rate, tiller numbers, plant height, forage dry matter yield, leaf to stem ratio, number of nods and internod length were recorded at their respective recommended stages. The elephant grass cultivars had significant (p<0.05) effect on survival rate, plant height, tiller number, dry matter yield and leaf to stem ratio. Based on the current result, higher herbage DMY (15.12 t/ha) was recorded from cultivar #15743 followed cultivar # 16788 (14.51 t/ha) and cultivar #16836 (14.50 t/ha), respectively while lower herbage dry matter yield (10.39 t/ha) was received from local check. The ANOVA results indicated that leaf to stem ratio (LSR) of cultivar # 15743 (1.94) was higher (p<0.05) than cultivars # 16836 (1.74), 16788 (1.55), 16798 (1.36) and local check (1.26). ANOVA results indicated that higher tiller number recorded from cultivar # 16836 (9.78), # 15743 (8.83) and # 16788 (8.58) while lower tiller number recorded from local check (5.56). Generally, elephant grass cultivar # 15743, # 16788 and # 16836 were well adapted and productive in regarding to herbage dry matter yield. Therefore, these grass cultivars were very important to fill the gap of low quantity and quality of animal feed supply of the study area. Thus, these three elephant grass cultivars were recommended for Harari region with similar agroecologies.

Keywords: Dry matter yield, Leaf to stem ratio, Plant height, Tiller numbers