%0 Journal Article
%T Studies on Biomass Yield, Morphological Characteristics and Nutritive Quality of Napier Cultivars under Two Different Geo-Topographic Conditions of Bangladesh
%A Nathu Ram Sarker
%A Mohammed Ahsan Habib
%A Dilruba Yeasmin
%A Farah Tabassum
%A Rurul Amin Mohammed
%J American Journal of Plant Sciences
%P 914-925
%@ 2158-2750
%D 2021
%I Scientific Research Publishing
%R 10.4236/ajps.2021.126061
%X The aim of the present study was to evaluate the performance
of Napier cultivars in terms of forage yield, plant morphology and nutrient
contents under two different agro-ecology and geo-topographic conditions. Three
Napier cultivars being conserved by Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute
(BLRI), namely-BLRI</span><span style=\"font-family:Verdana;\">-</span><span style=\"font-family:Verdana;\">Napier 1,
(BN-1), BLRI</span><span style=\"font-family:Verdana;\">-</span><span style=\"font-family:Verdana;\">Napier 3
(BN-3) and Merkeron (BN-5) were selected to cultivate in severe drought prone
areas (called Barind) and non-drought area at Savar (Modhupur terrace). Stem
cuttings were planted in rows apart from 70 cm and 35cm spacing between plants.
Data of 6 consecutive harvests from a period of approximately one year were
collected and analyzed statistically by ¡°R¡± software. The results showed that
cultivar and location had </span><span style=\"font-family:Verdana;\">a </span><span style=\"font-family:Verdana;\">significant (P &lt; 0.001) effect on biomass yield, plant height and
leaf-stem ratio (LSR), while number of tillers </span><span style=\"font-family:Verdana;\">were </span><span style=\"font-family:Verdana;\">significantly varied with
locations. BN-3 yielded the highest biomass (33.32 t/ha/harvest) at non-drought
location (42.98 t/ha/harvest). The highest plant height was obtained in BN-1
(171.2 cm) at non-drought location (174.6 cm). Number of tiller</span><span style=\"font-family:Verdana;\">s</span><span style=\"font-family:Verdana;\"> per hill ranged from 25.4
to 26.3 among cultivars (P &gt; 0.05) and the highest tillers were found at
non-drought location (28.1 no). The best LSR was estimated from BN-5 (0.86) at
drought location (0.95). The proximate analysis showed that CP, ADF and NDF in
whole plant </span><span style=\"font-family:Verdana;\">were </span><span style=\"font-family:Verdana;\">varied significantly (P &lt; 0.001), being the highest contents in BN-1
(10.69%, 46.20% and 54.58%, respectively). On the other hand, DM and ash
contents did not differ significantly (P &gt; 0.05) among cultivars which
ranged from 15.80% to 17.13% and 13.10% to 14.58%, respectively. The highest CP
content in whole plant was obtained at non-drought location (11.89%), while the
lowest ash (10.57%) and NDF (52.71%) contents were obtained at the same
location. The highest CP contents in leaf were found at non-drought (15.03%)
and the lowest ash (9.86%) at the same location. The highest CP contents
(5.90%) in stem were found at non-drought location, while the
%K Napier Cultivars
%K &lt
%K i&gt
%K Barind&lt
%K /i&gt
%K Forage Yield
%K Plant Morphology
%K Nutrient Contents
%U http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=110000