Influence of Nutrients on Growth and Yield of Bajra Napier Hybrid Grass

Abstract

Fodder crops cultivation in India is gaining momentum to overcome the feed and fodder shortages for the farm animals. Application of nutrients for fodder crops is a rare phenomenon and the package of practices are not adopted by the farmers to increase the productivity.  Fodder crops are almost negligible crops in our country.  Field experiments were conducted from 2014 to 2016 in sandy soils to study the influence of nutrients on growth and yield of bajra napier hybrid gram. The various nutrients used were organic and inorganic sources. The treatments included organic source of nutrients alone, inorganic sources of nutrients alone and combination of organic and inorganic sources of nutrients with 100% and 50% recommended dose of organic inorganic sources of nutrients given in twelve combinations. Various parameters such as plant height, number of tillers, number of leaves, leaf stem ratio, plant weight and biomass yield  were recorded. The results revealed that application of farmyard manure along with 100% recommended close of nutrients, i.e. 150:50:40 kg NPK / ha, applied through drip resulted in higher plant height (143.3 cm and 157.9 cm), number of tiller per plant (26.4 and 31.4), number of leaves per plants (358.7 and 376.3), leaf stem ratio of 0.44 and 0.59, plant weight (1337.2 and (700.6g) and plant biomass (62.5 and 68.0 t ha-1) during 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 respectively. During both the years of experimentation, application of Farmyard Manure at the rate of 25t ha-1 and 100% recommended dose of nutrients applied basally and the remaining through drip resulted in growth and yield parameter on par with the application of nutrients through drip alone.