Productivity of irrigated gamba grass (<i>Andropogon Gayanus Kunth</i>) as influenced by flood irrigation and compost manure levels in zaria.

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of varying levels of irrigation volume, irrigation frequency and compost manure application on growth components, forage yield and chemical composition of Gamba grass (Andropogon gayanus).The experimental design was a split- plot with 3×2×2 factorial arrangement, with three replications. There were three levels of irrigation volume (25, 50 and100L), under two irrigation frequencies (3 and 6 days) interval and two levels of compost (25 and 50t/ha), respectively. The result showed that stand count of Gamba grass was significantly affected (P< 0.05) by irrigation volume (335vs.243). Other growth components were significantly similar (P>0.05) in all the parameters measured. There was 8.2% significant increase (P< 0.05) in number of stands at 3days irrigation interval compared to that of 6 days. Compost levels applied had no significant effect (P>0.05) on number of stand and growth components in all the harvesting periods. The dry and fresh forage yields were significantly similar (P> 0.05) in all parameters measured. There were also no significant differences (P> 0.05) in all the interactions, except the values obtained from compost levels and age of maturity of gamba grass (P< 0.05) at different harvesting periods. The number of leaves at four weeks differed significantly (P< 0.05). Irrigation volume of 25L/day had the least (P<0.05) number of leaves (24) than other levels. However, all other parameters were not significant (P> 0.05). Interaction at 4 and 8 weeks were not significantly different (P>0.05) for plant height, except in the number of leaves at 12 weeks of age (P<0.05). It was therefore concluded that irrigation volume, frequency and levels of compost manure applied had effect on the productivity of gamba grass in Zaria, Nigeria. It is there recommended that, farmers could apply up to 100 liters of water per day to gamba grass at an irrigation interval of 3days and 25kg/ha of compost manure for better agronomic productivity of gamba grass in Zaria, Nigeria

Key words: Compost manure, gamba, irrigation, productivity, yield and quality