EFFECT OF IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF FODDER GRASSES

Abstract

The experiment was carried out to study the effect of irrigation management on growth and yield of fodder grasses conducted at the farm of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka-1207 during the period from October 2020 to January 2021. Four grass varieties viz. V 1 (Napier grass), V (Para grass), V 3 (Pakchong grass) and V (German grass) with four levels of irrigation including control viz. I 0 4 (control; no irrigation), I (Irrigation at 20 days of plantation), I 2 (Irrigation at 20 and 40 days of plantation) and I 1 (Irrigation at 20, 40 and 60 days of plantation) were considered for the present study. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Regarding varietal performance, V 3 3 (Pakchong grass) performed best in terms of growth, yield and yield contributing parameters followed by V 1 (Napier grass) but the variety V

(Para grass) gave the highest protein content compared to other varieties. In terms of irrigation effect considering growth, yield and yield contributing parameters and quality parameters I (Irrigation at 20, 40 and 60 days of plantation) showed the best performance in comparison to other irrigation treatments including control. In case of the treatment combination of variety and irrigation, the highest plant height (90.47 cm), number of leaves plant 3 -1 (45.10), number of branches plant -1 (18.73), internode length (11.97 cm), number of internodes tiller -1 (10.77), fresh weight plant (436.10 g), dry weight plant -1 (54.73 g), fresh weight plot -1 (5.23 kg) and fresh yield ha (9.69 t) were achieved from V 3 I 3 whereas control irrigation I (no irrigation) gave the lowest results on respected parameters. Regarding quality parameter, the highest protein content (12.93%) was recorded from V 2 I 3 0 whereas V 1 I gave the lowest protein content (7.45%). So, it can be concluded that the treatment combination of V 0 (Pakchong grass with 3 Irrigations at 20, 40 and 60 days of plantation) can be considered as the best compared to other treatment combinations and can be suggested at field level application. -1 2 -1 3 I 2 3