FORAGE YIELD AND QUALITY OF NEWLY EVOLVED GENOTYPE CHINESE SWEET SORGHUM GROWN ALONE AND IN ASSOCIATION WITH COWPEA

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted in the Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan to study the forage yield and quality of newly evolved Chinese sweet sorghum genotype grown alone and in association with cowpea. Chinese sweet sorghum was grown alone and in combination with cowpea in 30 cm apart rows as intercrop, mixed cropping, 2:1 lines of Chinese sweet sorghum and cowpea, 50:50 seed ratio and 75:25 seed ratio of Chinese sweet sorghum and cowpea, respectively and also by broadcast method. The results revealed a significant effect of sowing techniques on the forage yield and quality. The intercropping of sorghum and cowpea performed relatively better than the sowing of sole crops. However, blended seeds of Chinese sweet sorghum+cowpea sown in 30 cm apart rows produced maximum total green forage yield (47.23 t ha-1), total dry matter yield (6.40 t ha-1), protein percentage (27.08%) and less fibre contents as compared to the rest of treatments. In conclusion, blended seeds of Chinese sweet sorghum+cowpea sown in 30 cm apart can be a preferable practice for the farmers of semi-arid regions to get maximum forage and dry matter yield.