Abstract
The experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of prolonged irrigated fodders on soil key parameters and agronomic water use efficiency. The experiment was laid-out in Randomized Complete Block design with split plot arrangement having four replications with a net subplot size of 7 m × 3 m. Treatments consisted of two crops (pearl millet and sorghum) and three irrigation levels (2, 3 and 4 numbers of irrigation). Soil parameters, i.e. organic carbon, particle density, bulk density, porosity were measured at three depth, i.e. 0-5 cm, 5-10 and 10-15 cm. Agronomic parameters were also recorded such as plant height, fresh biomass and dry biomass. The results of this study showed that the maximum fresh biomass of sorghum (27.96 Mg ha-1) and of pearl millet (28.16 Mg ha-1) was observed with treatment where three number of irrigation was applied. The maximum agronomic water use efficiency was also observed with three number of irrigation in both the crops. The minimum soil bulk density and maximum percentage of pore spaces was observed with I2 where three number of irrigation was used in case of pearl millet and sorghum.
Highlights
Fodders are the very vital resource for the development of agricultural economy of the poor countries for the purpose of livestock raising
The experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of fodders on soil physical properties and agronomic water use efficiency under the field conditions at Government Livestock Farm Jugait-Peer Bahawalpur, Cholistan
Our results are in line with those of Abdel-Motagalty [35] who observed maximum plant height (214 cm), head length (24.99 cm), head weight (87.16 g), grain yield (55.45 g head-1), seed index (32.91g), grain yield (7.59 kg plot-1) and straw yield (24.27 kg plot-1) in the plots irrigated with I2 followed by I1 and I3
Summary
Fodders are the very vital resource for the development of agricultural economy of the poor countries for the purpose of livestock raising. In Pakistan, Punjab is the leading province in fodder production area with 2.7 million hectares. The annual production of fodders in the province is 57 million tones with 21.1 tons ha-1 average fodder yield [1,2]. Sorghum is usually grown by all the farmers in the rainfed and irrigated area of Pakistan. Its forage is fed to every type of livestock and can be used as hay or silage. Sorghum fodder is poor in quality due to low protein content and presence of hydrocyanic acid [3]. Among the many options to overcome the shortage of forage, the best one is the introduction of high yielding crop varieties [2]
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