I. EZENWA¹, OLUWATOYIN A. ARIBISALA² and M.E. AKEN'OVA¹

¹Department of Agronomy, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
²Department of Animal Production and Health, Ladoke Akintola University, Ogbomosho, Nigeria

Abstract

Pure stands of guinea grass (Panicum maximum cv. Ntchisi) and ruzi grass (Brachiaria ruziziensis), with or without N fertiliser at 200 kg/ha, and tropical kudzu (Pueraria phaseoloides), plus mixtures of each grass with the legume were established in a mature oil palm plantation and in the open to ascertain their productivity at Ibadan, south-west Nigeria.
Dry matter (DM) yields during the growing season (16 weeks in plantation; 24 weeks in the open) were higher in the open than in the plantation. Nitrogen-fertilised guinea grass and guinea grass-tropical kudzu mixture produced the highest DM yields both in the open (7.1 and 5.9 t/ha, respectively) and under oil palms (3.1 and 2.1 t/ha). The DM yields of ruzi grass tropical kudzu in the open and under oil palms were 5.9 and 2.7 t/ha, respectively, while that of N-fertilised ruzi grass in the open was 4.2 t/ha. In the oil palm plantation, ruzi grass without N fertiliser produced more DM (1.8 t/ha) than when given N (0.2 t/ha). More biomass was produced in plots planted to pastures than in unplanted plots with natural vegetation, both in and outside the plantation. Strategic use may be made of the plantation to produce forage (reserves) for dry season use.