PRODUCTIVITY AND QUALITY OF FORAGE MILLET AS AFFECTED BY NITROGEN AND BIO FERTILIZATION UNDER NEW VALLEY CONDITIONS

Abstract

Two field experiments were conducted at New Valley Agric. Res. Station, ARC during the two successive summer seasons of 2012 and 2013 to study the effect of nitrogen fertilizer levels (Zero, 60, 90 and 120 kg N fed-1) and inoculation with cyanobacteica and / or Azospirillum sp. under the two levels of inorganic nitrogen (60 and 90 kg N fed-1) on growth, forage yield and quality traits of forage millet cv. Shandaweel-1 as well as economic evaluation of studied treatments. The experimental design was a randomized complete block with three replications. Combined analysis of data over the two seasons revealed that growth parameters forage yield and quality traits were significantly affected by the full recommended nitrogen rate (120 kg N fed-1). The application of cyanobacteria and Azospirillum sp. combined with 75% of its recommended nitrogen rate(120 kg N fed-1) led to significantly increase in plant height by 2.5 %, number of tillers plant-1 by 11%, stem diameter by 10%, total fresh forage yield by 15% , total dry forage yield by about 8%, crude fiber yield by 7.8%, ash yield by about 20.7%, total digestible nutrient seasonal yield by7.5% and digestible crude protein seasonal yield by about 0.40%as compared with the plants received the recommended nitrogen rate (120 kg N fed-1). Application of 120 kg N fed-1 gave crude protein yield similar to that obtained from inoculation with treatment cyanobacteria and Azospirillum sp combined with 75% N fertilization (90 kg N fed-1). The application of cyanobacteria and Azospirillum sp. combined with 75% of the recommended nitrogen rate (120 kg fed-1) is the highest in return of invested L.E. which estimated at about 3.7 L.E., meaning that every pound is spent in the cultivation of millet to this the transaction back to the farmer in the pound has been spent in agriculture plus net return, which is estimated at 2.7 pounds and considered the best studied treatment. From the above mentioned results it could be recommended that the application of cyanobacteria and Azospirillum sp. Combined with 75% of the recommended mineral nitrogen gave the highest productivity of forage millet and a higher net return for the farmer under NewValley conditions.