Evaluation of Pigeon pea ( Cajanus cajan ) for Dry Matter Yield and Chemical Composition on Station of Jinka Agricultural Research Center, South Omo, South-Western Ethiopia

摘要

The pigeon pea species could play an important role in providing a significant amount of high quality dry matter yield and digestible crude protein to the livestock. Therefore, this study was initiated to evaluate the dry matter yield and chemical composition of five pigeon pea varieties under rain fed condition in 2017 and 2018 main cropping years at on-station of Jinka Agricultural Research Center. The five pigeon pea varieties were evaluated in randomized complete block design with three replications per variety. The data on dry matter yield, plant height, branches per plant, leaf to stem ratio and chemical compositions were analyzed using the General Linear Model procedures of SAS and Least Significance Difference was used for mean comparisons. The significantly higher (P0.05) dry matter yield (21.84 t/ha) and crude protein (274.6 g/Kg, DM) were obtained for 16555 pigeon pea variety and whereas, the lowest dry matter yield (13.92 t/ha) and crude protein (179.90 g/Kg, DM) were observed for local pigeon pea variety. Based results from this study it was concluded that the farmers who living in mid land areas of South Omo Zone and other areas having comparable agro-ecology could plant pigeon pea 16555 variety as superior candidate for higher dry matter yield and crude protein. Moreover, we suggested that future research will be considered the effect of planting space on dry matter yield and supplementation effect of superior candidate pigeon pea 16555 on the sustainable livestock production performances (meat, milk and growth).