Abstract
A high yielding perennial herbaceous legume fodder variety Desmanthus CO 2 was developed at the Department of Forage Crops, Centre for Plant Breeding and Genetics, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. It is a gamma ray mutant of Desmanthus CO 1. The mutant was identified owing to its superior performance in station trials conducted from 2013 to 2015. It was evaluated in Multi Location during 2015-17 and in On Farm Trial during 2016-18. Simultaneously it was also tested under the All India Co-ordinated Research Project on Forage Crops and Utilization Trials during 2016-18. The variety CO 2 (mutant TND 1308) registered an overall green fodder yield of 91.04 t/ha in all the trials which were 14.18 per cent increase over the national check CO 1. The mean dry matter yield was 115.1 q/ha which was 15.15 per cent over the national check CO 1. Similarly, it has the mean dry matter yield of 0.55 q/ha/day, the crude protein content of 15.58 per cent, Acid Detergent Fibre of 40.80 per cent, Neutral detergent fibre of 54.38 per cent and in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) of 60.06 per cent ensuring increased palatability, digestibility and intake rate. It ranked first at All India level during 2016 to 2018 for a green fodder yield (44.18 t/ha), dry matter yield (115.1 q/ha) and DMY (0.55 q/ha/day) which was 12.78, 15.15 and 14.58 per cent superior over the national check CO 1, respectively. Considering the green fodder yield and fodder quality of the culture TND 1308, it was proposed and identified for release as Desmanthus CO 2 for general cultivation throughout India.
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