https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2025-2080ABSTRACT
The experiment was carried out to evaluate the agronomic performance and dry matter yield of the Pennisetum pedicellatum varieties (areka, kulmsa, and kindonkosha-591) at Debre Markos University, Ethiopia, during 2023 in a RCBD with three replications. The agronomic performance of all varieties was measured from the six plants that were selected randomly from the middle rows of each plot at 105, 119, and 133 days after planting, and dry matter yield was measured at 135 days after planting. The study showed that there were significant differences (p < 0.05) in plant height, number of tillers and leaves, leaf length, and dry matter yield, but the number of nodes and leaf width were not significantly different (p > 0.05) among varieties. The highest values of plant height, number of tillers and leaves per plant, and leaf length and width were measured from the areka variety, followed by the kulmsa variety, while the least was recorded from the kindonkosha-591 variety. The plant height, number of tillers per plant, number of leaves per plant, and dry matter yield of the areka variety were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than the kulmsa and kindonkosha-591 varieties. The highest dry matter yield was also produced from areka (11.55 t/ha), followed by kulmsa (8.52) and kindonkosha −591 (7.99 t/ha). The areka grass variety showed superior agronomic performance and dry matter yield, suggesting its potential for improving feed shortage constraints in the study areas.
1. Introduction
The security of Ethiopian communities’ food supply and nutrition depends heavily on livestock production. However, a significant obstacle to the production of livestock in Ethiopia generally and in the study regions especially is the lack of sufficient high-quality feeds (Mengistu et al., Citation2021). Forage crops, such as Pennisetum pedicellatum (Desho grass), are recommended for livestock producers to address nutritional problems (Fuglie et al., Citation2021).
Desho grass, originating from Chencha, southern Ethiopia (Welle et al., Citation2006), is a large, many-branched, leafy grass that can grow up to 1 meter in height (Leta et al., Citation2013). The culms are erect and branching, and the leaves are 15–25 cm long and 4–10 mm wide (Heliso et al., Citation2019; Schultze-Kraft et al., Citation2018). Desho grass can be grown on disturbed land where annual rainfall ranges between 600 mm and 1500 mm, with a rainy season of 4–6 months and an average daily temperature of about 30–35°C. It thrives on a wide range of soils (including degraded sandy soils), well-drained soils, and is a drought-resistant plant. However, the grass is susceptible to waterlogging and frost (Heliso et al., Citation2019; Schultze-Kraft et al., Citation2018). Desho is utilized as palatable feed for cattle and sheep (Abera et al., Citation2021), for soil and water conservation, to rehabilitate degraded land (Welle et al., Citation2006), and as a business opportunity for farmers in Ethiopia through the sale of seedlings and fresh biomass (Leta et al., Citation2013).
It has the potential to meet the challenges of feed shortages since it provides more forage per unit area and ensures regular forage supply due to its multi-cut nature (Tesfaye et al., Citation2022). Desho grass is suitable for intensive management and performs well at an altitude ranging from 1500 to 2800 meters above sea level (Leta et al., Citation2013). Desho grass performs best at an altitude greater than 1700 meters above sea level (Welle et al., Citation2006). The yield and nutritional value of forage are influenced by variety, soil fertility, climate, kind and stage of utilization, management, time, and location (Gadisa et al., Citation2019; Hidosa et al., Citation2020; Tesfaye et al., Citation2022; Tilahun et al., Citation2017; Yirgu et al., Citation2017).
The herbage dry matter yield of desho grass ranged from 24.5–30.5 t/ha in the Guji zone (Jabessa et al., Citation2021). Due to its rapid growth rate, desho grass provides regular harvests, even reaching monthly cuts during the rainy season. Desho grass has a crude protein content of 8.8–17.1% (Jabessa et al., Citation2021). It also contains Fe, Zn, Mn, Mg, Ca, and P, which are above the requirements of animals as recommended (Asmare et al., Citation2018). The digestibility and voluntary intake decrease with an increase in the stage of maturity, which indicates that the grass should be fed at the early stage of maturity. Desho grass can be used in cut and carry systems and direct grazing since it provides ample quantities of good quality green forage and stands several cuts a year. Desho grass is also useful for hay and silage preparation (Seid et al., Citation2021).
The agronomic performance and dry matter yield of desho grass varieties (areka, kulmsa, and kindonkosha-591) were investigated in different parts of Ethiopia by (Gadisa et al., Citation2019; Hidosa et al., Citation2020; Wana et al., Citation2021). Furthermore, the agronomic performance of desho grass species in northwest Ethiopia was evaluated by (Asmare et al., Citation2018); however, no research was done on the agronomic performance and dry matter yield of desho variety differences in the study areas. Therefore, this study was initiated to evaluate the agronomic performance and dry matter yield of the three desho grass varieties in the east Gojjam zone, northwestern Ethiopia.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Description of the study area
The experiment was conducted at the Debre Markos University (DMU) Demonstration Site (Figure ) and has an altitude of 2420 meters above sea level. It has a maximum and minimum temperature of 27 and 10°C, respectively, and a mean annual rainfall of 1380 mm.
Figure 1. Map of the study areas.
2.2. Treatments and experimental design
The experiment was conducted at the demonstration site of the DMU in 2023 to evaluate the agronomic performance and dry matter yield of the desho varieties. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications (Table ). The three desho varieties, namely, areka, kulmsa, and kindonkosha-591, were used in this experiment.
Table 1. Assigned treatments (desho varieties) in each block and plot
The varieties were selected due to their availability and adaptability in the study areas. The size of the plot used was 2 m *4 m, and the intra and inter-spacing was 37.5 and 50 cm, respectively. The blocks and plots were separated by a distance of 1 meter. The experimental materials were planted in rows using root splits from plant tillers. Land preparation, planting, and weeding were done according to the recommendations (Leta et al., Citation2013). DAP and urea were applied at planting and after establishment at a rate of 100 and 50 kg per hectare, respectively (Bedeke et al., Citation2017). Urea fertilizer was applied at planting, and DAP was added 21 days after establishment according to the local recommendation (Leta et al., Citation2013).
2.3. Data collection
The agronomic performance of the desho grass varieties, such as plant height, number of tillers per plant, number of leaves per plant, leaf length and width, and number of nodes per plant, were measured from six plants that were selected randomly from the middle rows of each plot at 105, 119, and 133 days after planting, and dry matter yield was measured at 135 days after planting. Plant height (cm): the average plant height was measured from the ground to the tip of the main stem. The measurement was done by taking six plants (Beyene et al., Citation2015). Leaf length was measured from the base of the leaf to the leaf tip using a ruler from six randomly selected plants. Leaf width was obtained by measuring the leaf from the bottom, mid, and tip, then taking the average. The number of tillers per plant was counted from the six sampled plants. The dry matter yield: the plant in each plot was sampled using a quadrat (0.5 m x 0.5 m) (Mengistu & Mekasha, Citation2007). The quadrat was randomly thrown on a plot, and the average weight of the quadrat was used to determine the dry matter yield. The average weight of the fresh weight was used and extrapolated into dry matter yield per hectare (t/ha). The fresh harvested biomass was taken and partially dried in an oven at 65 °C for 72 hours for dry matter analysis (Ajema Desalegn, Citation2022).
2.4. Data analysis
A general linear model procedure was used to analyze the data using SPSS (Version 25). The means were separated using the least significant difference (LSD) at the 5% significance level.
3. Results and discussions
3.1. Plant height of desho (Pennisetum pedicellatum) varieties
Plant height is a crucial factor that influences the dry matter yield of forage crops (Dhumale & Mishra, Citation1979). The plant’s height is influenced by its variety and stage of development (Figure ). The areka variety exhibited the tallest plants at all growth stages, followed by the Kulmsa and Kindonkosha-591 (Figure ). This result is in line with the findings of (Jabessa et al., Citation2021) found that the areka variety had the highest plant height, while Kindonkosha-591 had the lowest. The areka and kulmsa had significantly longer heights (p < 0.05) compared to the kidnokosha-591 (Table ). This is supported by the studies (Hidosa et al., Citation2020; Jabessa et al., Citation2021), which found that the height of the areka and kulmsa varieties was significantly taller than kidnokosha-591. These variations in plant height are mostly caused by variations in the genetic makeup of varieties (Beyene et al., Citation2015).
Figure 2. The height of the three desho varieties at three development stages.
Table 2. The agronomic performance the three of desho varieties at different maturity stages
The heights of the areka, kulmsa, and kidnokosha-591 varieties in the current study at the late maturity stage were comparable to the findings of (Jabessa et al., Citation2021), who reported that the heights of areka, kulmsa, and kidnokosha-591 were 97.7, 97.7, and 91.2 cm, respectively. However, the height of the areka, kulmsa, and kidnokosha-591 in the current study was shorter than the findings (Wana et al., Citation2021), who reported that the height of the areka, kulmsa, and kidnokosha-591 was 102.9, 97.9, and 104.4 cm, respectively, and (Hidosa et al., Citation2020), who reported that the height of the areka, kulmsa, and kidnokosha-591 was around 161.3, 116.1, and 98.2 cm, respectively.
On the other hand, the mean height of the three desho grass varieties in the current study was longer than 35.8 cm (at 105 days) and 56.9 cm (135 days) (Asmare et al., Citation2018). The difference in plant height could be due to the season of planting, soil types, time of measurement, fertilizer rate, climatic conditions, and space of planting. As explained by (Lodhi et al., Citation2009; Zaman et al., Citation2006), plant height may differ between varieties due to environmental conditions, which in turn cause variations in hormonal balance and cell division rate. In all desho varieties, the plant height increased significantly (p < 0.01) as the varieties matured (Table ), which is confirmed by (Asmare et al., Citation2018; Wana et al., Citation2021). This may be a result of the plant’s rapid development of roots, stems, and leaves as well as its effective uptake of nutrients, which allows the plant to grow taller (Bantihun et al., Citation2022).
3.2. Number of tillers per plant
Tillering performance is a crucial factor to consider when choosing the right forage crop species (Hayes et al., Citation2013). The maximum number of tillers in areka, kulmsa, and kindonkosha-591 varieties was reported during the late maturity stage, followed by the intermediate and early stages. The mean number of tillers per plant increases with maturity (Figure ) and significantly (p < 0.01) increases with maturity (Table ). The increment in the number of tillers per plant is in line with the findings of (Asmare et al., Citation2018; Tesfaye et al., Citation2022). As the plants matured, numerous fine branches emerged from the leaf axils of the main stems (Lepcha et al., Citation2019).
Figure 3. The number of tillers per plant for three varieties at three maturity stages.
The number of tillers per plant for the areka at all stages was significantly higher (p < 0.01) than for kulmsa and kindonkosha-591 (Table ). The number of tillers per plant at late maturity stage (133 days) in the current study for areka variety (103.5) was significantly higher (p < 0.01) than for kulmsa (96.2) and kindonkosha-591 (82.5). This is in line with the results of (Hidosa et al., Citation2020), where the number of tillers per plant was significantly higher for areka (69.8) than for kulmsa (51.8) and kindonkosha-591 (49.2). Moreover, the number of tillers per plant for areka (145.7) and kulmsa (145.3) was higher than the number of tillers per plant for kindonkosha-591 (137.9) (Jabessa et al., Citation2021). In contrast, the number of tillers per plant for kindonkosha-591 (90.8) was higher than kulmsa (87.04) and areka (86.4) (Wana et al., Citation2021). These differences might be due to variations in soil fertility, management system, maturity stage, planting space, and climatic conditions (Beyene et al., Citation2015).
3.3. Number of leaves per plant
The study found that the maximum number of leaves per plant was highest during the late maturity stage, followed by intermediate and lowest leaves during the early maturity stage (Figure ). At late maturity stage, the areka plant had a significantly higher (p < 0.05) number of leaves per plant compared to the kulmsa and kindonkosha-591 varieties. This is in line with the results of (Jabessa et al., Citation2021), who reported the number of leaves per plant was higher for areka (13.7) and kulmsa (12.4) than for the kindonkosha-591 (11.1) variety. The differences might be due to genetic variation, soil fertility, the season of the experiment being conducted, and plant height, which might lead to a high number of leaves per tiller.
Figure 4. The number of leaves per plant for three varieties at three maturity stage.
The number of leaves per plant increased with maturity (Figure ) and significantly increased (p < 0.01) as the age of the plant increased (Table ), which is similar to the study of (Tilahun et al., Citation2017). This might be due to the extended growth, the increment in plant height, the number of tillers, and the number of nodes that produce a comparable number of leaves (Bantihun et al., Citation2022). The higher number of leaves per plant is important for photosynthesis and helps in the accumulation of more organic matter because the number of leaves increases photosynthesis and root growth in plants (Xu & Zhou, Citation2008). This indicated that the time of harvesting had a significant influence on the number of leaves (Chattha et al., Citation2017).
3.4. Leaf width of Desho varieties
The leaf width of desho varieties is presented in Table . Leaf widths for Areka, Kulmsa, and Kindonkosha-591 varieties were highest in late maturity, followed by intermediate maturity, and lowest in early maturity (Figure ). The leaf width of the three desho varieties did not significantly differ (p > 0.05) at all growth stages. However, the width of the desho grass varieties in the current study was wider than 1.045 cm (Bantihun et al., Citation2022).
Figure 5. The width of leaf for three desho varieties at three maturity stage.
The study found that as the growth age increased, the width of leaves also increased, which aligns with previous research findings (Bantihun et al., Citation2022). The wider leaf is important for its surface exposure on the ground and solar radiation interception during growth and development (Zhang et al., Citation2019). Variety with broad leaves has a bigger surface area that enhances photosynthetic activity, thereby producing more carbohydrates that stimulate the regrowth of leaf width and length. This is due to cell division, elongation, and maturation zones occurring sequentially along the base of the developing leaf (Bantihun et al., Citation2022).
3.5. Leaf length of desho varieties
The areka variety showed the longest leaf length, followed by the kulmsa variety with intermediate lengths, and the kindonkosha-591 variety with the shortest length (Table ). The study found the leaf lengths of kindonkosha-591 had significantly shorter (p < 0.05) than areka and kulmsa varieties except for the intermediate stage (Table ). This is in line with the study of (Jabessa et al., Citation2021). In the current study, the leaf lengths of areka, kulmsa, and kindonkosha-591 were 36.0, 35.1, and 31.1 cm, respectively at the late stage which, is shorter than the findings of (Wana et al., Citation2021), who reported the leaf lengths of areka, kulmsa, and kindonkosha-591 varieties was 48.1, 47.0, and 49.9 cm, respectively. Moreover, the leaf length of areka, kulmsa, and kindonkosha-591 varieties in the current study was shorter than the findings of (Jabessa et al., Citation2021), who reported the leaf length of areka, kulmsa, and kindonkosha-591 were 44.7, 45.0, and 40.3 cm, respectively. However, the leaf length of areka, kulmsa, and kindonkosha-591 varieties in the current study was longer than the findings of (Asmare et al., Citation2018), who reported the leaf length of desho grass was 24.9 cm at 135 days of harvesting.
The length of leaves increased progressively with age in all desho grass varieties (Figure ), significantly (p < 0.01) increasing from 105 to 133 days after planting (Table ). Similar findings were observed by (Hidosa & Getaneh, Citation2021; Hidosa et al., Citation2020), who reported that the length of leaves increased progressively with age in all desho grass varieties. This is because the leaf length of grasses is greatly influenced by the developmental stage of the plant. Leaf length is a key factor determining the vegetative yield of forage grasses (Bantihun et al., Citation2022).
Figure 6. The length of leaf for three desho varieties at three maturity stage.
3.6. Number of nodes per plant
The number of nodes per plant varied among desho varieties (Figure ). The study found that the late maturity stage (133 days) had the highest number of nodes per plant, followed by intermediate maturity (119 days) and early maturity (105 days) varieties. The study found that the areka, kulmsa, and kindonkosha-591 varieties have longer node numbers per plant than those reported by (Kebede et al., Citation2022), who stated the number of nodes per plant for the areka, kulmsa, and kindonkosha-591 varieties (4.8, 4.6, and 5.1, respectively). The number of nodes per plant in all desho grass varieties increased progressively with age (Figure ), significantly (p < 0.01) increasing from 105 to 133 days after planting (Table ). This might be because as the growth age and tiller number increase, the apical meristem becomes indeterminate, potentially producing infinite nodes and leaves (Bantihun et al., Citation2022).
Figure 7. The number of nodes per plant of three desho varieties at three maturity stage.
3.7. Dry matter yield of desho varieties
The average dry matter yield of the three desho grass varieties is presented in Table . The areka variety yielded the highest fresh and dry matter, while kindonkosha-591 produced the lowest, and the kulmsa variety had an intermediate mean dry matter yield. The dry matter yield of areka, kulmsa, and kindonkosha-591 varieties in the current study was lower than 27.9, 20.7, and 14.5 t/ha, respectively (Hidosa et al., Citation2020) and 35.1, 25.4, and 22.8 t/ha for areka, kulmsa, and kindonkosha-591 varieties, respectively (Hidosa & Getaneh, Citation2021). Moreover, the dry matter yield of the areka, kulmsa, and kindonkosha-591 varieties in the current study was different from the study (Wana et al., Citation2021), who reported that the dry matter yield of the areka, kulmsa, and kindonkosha-591 varieties was around 11.6, 13.8, and 15.4 t/ha, respectively. This variation might be due to the season of harvesting, fertilizer rate, soil fertility, sowing season, irrigation, rainfall, and planting spacing. As the harvesting age increases, the dry matter yield also increases due to a higher percentage of tillering performance and plant height (Mihret et al., Citation2018).
Table 3. The fresh and dry matter yield of three desho varieties
The mean dry matter yield of the areka variety was significantly higher (p < 0.05) than that of the kulmsa and kindonkosha-591 varieties, which is in line with the findings of (Gadisa et al., Citation2019; Hidosa & Getaneh, Citation2021; Hidosa et al., Citation2020). The higher dry matter yield of the areka variety compared to the kulmsa and kindonkodha-591 varieties is due to the higher areka height and the higher number of tillers and leaves per plant (Table ). These components resulted in a higher dry matter yield of the areka variety than the kulmsa, and kindonkosha-591 varieties. The increase in dry matter yield in the areka variety could be attributed to the increase in tiller number, leaf formation, leaf elongation, and stem development (Yegrem et al., Citation2019). This is due to the fact that as the dry matter yield increased, plant density increased, and a high number of tillers emerged (Mihret et al., Citation2018).
4. Conclusions and recommendations
The results imply that the areka variety performed well in terms of agronomic performance and dry matter yield, followed by the kulmsa and kindonkosha-591 varieties. Therefore, it could be possible to draw the conclusion that the desho grass varieties should be recommended for reducing the constraints of a feed shortage in the east Gojjam zone. Future research will evaluate the effect of spacing and fertilizer rate on the dry matter yield and nutrient content of the three desho varieties.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Data availability statement
Researchers have access to the data for this study, which they can share with others upon request.
Additional information
Funding
References
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