Herbage Yield, Quality and Nutrients Composition of Bajra Napier (BN) Hybrid Grass Varieties under Central Gujarat Condition

Among various perennial grasses, BN hybrid grass (Pennisetum glaucum x Pennisetum purpureum) is most popular in irrigated areas of India including Gujarat state due to several factors like wide spread agro-climatic adaptability, high yield potential, nutritional quality, low cost of cultivation, insect-pest-disease resistances, tolerance to grazing/damages by wild animals, vegetative propagation and high response towards manure, fertilizer and irrigations. In Central Gujarat region, farmers are mainly cultivating CO 3 and APBN 1 varieties, which have been supplied to them by agriculture institutes. These two popular varieties were considered as local checks (LC) in trial. Three very old varieties (IGFRI 6, PBN 233 and IGFRI 10) were also considered for trial due to their popularity at national level. Newly notified varieties of BN hybrid grass (CO 4, DHN 6 & BNH 10) were included in the trial as sufficient information’s on performance of these new varieties under Central Gujarat condition is not available. Hence, need was felt to compare the yield, quality and nutrient composition of old, local checks and new notified varieties of BN hybrid together in one experiment under Central Gujarat condition