PRODUCTIVITY OF COMMON FORAGE LEGUMES UNDER MELIA TREE

SHADE

R. K. Adhikari1, N. R. Devkota1, D. B. Nepali karki1, I. C. P. Tiwari1

1 Institute of Agriculture and Animal Sciences, Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal

ABSTRACT

An experiment was conducted to determine forage biomass and nutritive

value of common leguminous forages grown under tree shade of 15 years old Melia
azadirach (Bakaino) at IAAS livestock farm, Rampur during June 2006 to July
2007, using a split plot design, with three replications. The main plots were three
levels of Melia trees shade, and the sub plots were common leguminous forage:
Kudzu, Forage peanut, and Glycine grown understory. Shade was maintained by
pruning the branches of trees at 4m, 5m, and 6m, respectively aiming at three levels
from the ground, and considered as heavy, medium, and low shade with the mean
value of 6%, 9%, and 12% available lux, respectively. Open plot was also
maintained with 100 % lux. Morphological characters such as vine length, main
branches, leaves number, nodes number per plant, along with leaf area, and number
of root nodules per plant were periodically recorded. Fresh herbage mass and dried
weight yield (t/ha) were estimated four times. The digestibility coefficient of forage
species was determined by feeding goats. Shade had significant effect (P<0.05) to
the certain traits such as vine length, and leaf numbers per plant for most of the
measurements. The trend of dry weight accumulation of forages was 69% to that of
open shade at heavy shade; 83% at medium shade, and 86 % at low shade. Forage
peanut had higher cumulative biomass in all shade level, including open condition.
The highest cumulative biomass of forage peanut among the shade levels was
13t/ha which was for low shade, where as glycine and kudzu performed relatively
better only under medium shade. Forage peanut also had highest number of nodules
per plant in all shade levels. The effect of shade and also the species difference in
terms of nutritive value of forage was significant (P<0.01). The value of CP was
highest for forage peanut in all harvests. The digestibility coefficient of CF for
forage peanut was 65.72 % followed by 63% for kudzu. Results of this study thus
revealed that forage peanut always had highest biomass production as well as CP
content followed by kudzu, and glycine, respectively. The results also indicated that
performance of forage legume under Melia tree based silvipastoral system could be
varied as per forage species considered for different level of shade.

Key words: Forage legumes, silvipastoral system, productivity, nutritive value

INTRODUCTION

Livestock plays an important role especially in the small scale farming system
throughout the world (LPP, 2005). Livestock related farming system is also highly valued
in Nepal. Nepal is one of the countries with the highest livestock population in the world
(HMG, 2002/03). Livestock sector in Nepal, actually contributes more than 32% to the
Agriculture Gross Domestic Product, and is expected to increase by 47% by 2015 AD
(APP, 1995). Livestock provides milk, meat, eggs, wool, and power for transportation
and often is the source of cash income to the many households across the country (Joshi,
1991; Pande, 1997). But the productivity of farm animal is comparatively low mainly due
to the shortage of feedstuffs to satisfy the nutrient requirements. The annual estimated
feed deficit in the country is about 34 % and 54.3% on dry matter (DM), and green
roughages basis (Pande, 1997; Raut, 1998). In the prevailing situation, silvipastoral
system could be taken as a viable option and also an alternate way to reduce the shortage
of green forage resources. Silvipastoral system is one of the agroforestry practices that
intentionally integrate trees, forage crops, and livestock into a structural practice of
planned interactions (Clason and Sharrow, 2000). Silvopasture can be used to maximize
the growth potential from an acre of land by fully utilizing the horizontal and vertical
growing space. Higher forage production, nutritive value, and digestibility are reported
for pastures grown under trees (Garrett and Kurtz, 1983; Burner and Brauer, 2003) but
this is condition to particular environment, especially if moisture stress is prevailed.
Forestry, particularly silvipastoral system provides opportunity of exploring otherwise
unused space under the trees to produce forage.
Melia azadirach is one of the popular multipurpose tree species in terai of Nepal.
Hectares of private Melia plantation is a recent trend. However, understorey area is
largely ignored by the farmers due to lack of appropriate technology and knowledge
about the introduction of suitable fodder species. Therefore, a study was conducted to to
evaluate growth performance of common forage legumes grown under mature stands of
Melia tree shade in terms of dry matter production and nutritive value to help develop a
sound silvipastoral system in terai regions of Nepal.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The experiment was conducted at the livestock farm of Institute of Agriculture

and Animal Science (IAAS) Rampur, Chitwan from May 2006 to June 2007 using split
plot design, with three replications. The research plots are characterized by well
established Bakaino (Melia azedarach) tree, planted 15 years ago with the spacing of 5 ×
5 m2. The number of stems (trees) was maintained at 1200/ha. The mean monthly
meteorological data during the experimental period was taken from the record of National
Maize Research Program (NMRP) at Rampur. The main plot (13.5 × 4 m2) was tree
shade created by pruning trees maintained in three categories namely heavy, medium, and
low shade, by pruning trees upto the height of 3, 4, and 5 m respectively from the ground.
The sub plots were common leguminous forage: Kudzu (Pueraria thunbergiana), Forage
(Arachis glabarata) peanut, and Glycine(Neonantia wiightii) grown understory. Field
preparation was done a month prior to the planting of forages by clearing all the bushes
and stubble. The cuttings of glycine grown in the ploypots were transplanted into the
field with the spacing of 50 × 50 cm2. The cutting of forage peanuts were directly planted
in respective subplot. The seeds of Kudzu were directly sown in a line with the spacing of
50 × 50 cm2. Shade was maintained by pruning the branches of trees at 4m, 5m, and 6m,
respectively aiming at three levels from the ground, and considered as heavy, medium,

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and low shade with the mean value of 6%, 9%, and 12% available lux, respectively. Open
plot was also maintained with 100 % lux. Intercultural operations such as weeding,
thinning, and irrigation were done periodically throughout the experimental period.
The harvesting of forage was done at 95 days after plantation whereas subsequent
harvesting was done after 45 days interval of the each harvest. Morphological characters
such as vine length per plant, main branches per plant, leaves number per plant, nodes
number per plant, along with leaf area per plant, and number of root nodules per plant
were periodically recorded. Fresh herbage mass and dried weight yield (t/ha) were
estimated four times. The digestibility coefficient of forage species was determined by
feeding goats.
Recorded data were tabulated in Ms-Excel. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was
performed for subplot and main plot effects. Analysis of Variance was done using Gen
Stat Version 5.4.2 (Lawes Agricultural Trust, 2001). Least Significance Difference (LSD)
was used to compare the means using α = 0.05.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Effect of different level of shade on morphological attributes of forage

The results of this experiment have shown that vine length per plant in different
shade levels was higher than under open shade. The value was highest (191.63cm) in
medium shade. The mean value of all morphological parameters is presented in table1.
This result is consistent with the findings other studies, which showed that in a light
limited environment, photosynthate allocation patterns favor shoot elongation, hence
increase light harvesting capabilities (Walters et al., 1993; Wang et al., 1994). Similarly,
the results demonstrate that number of main branches increased as the shade level
decreased. Heavy shade in first harvest had lowest (1.78) number of main branches per
plant while it was highest (15.44) under low shade at last harvest. This is quite related
with the principle that when light transmission is reduced in shade, the plant attempts to
increase in height by cell elongation, to capture more light for photosynthesis (Walters et
al., 1993; Wang et al., 1994). Similar result was also represented by Barsila (2006) who
also showed an increase in the number of branches as there was decrease in shade level.
There was great variation in the number of leaves per plant in different shade
level and also under open shade. The result showed that the number of leaves per plant
was higher in open shade in all harvest. The number of leaves directly related to the
number of branches (Bahmani et al., 2000). Therefore, low number of branches could
result in the production of low number of leaves per plant (Lemaire and Chapman, 1996).
Leaf area of the forages species was high in low shade environment as compared
to the open condition. The increase in leaf area might be due to many reasons. Mainly,
the response low light stress generally increases in plant leaf area to maximize the
possibility of light interception that helps changes in physiological processes to enhance
the efficiency of carbon utilization (Widin, 1991). The result was also supported by
Fernández et al., (2004), who reported that increase in specific leaf area explain the
relatively high shade tolerance of the species and resulted from changes in biomass
allocation and crown architecture.

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Table 1. The mean value of different parameters of leguminous forages grown under
Melia tree shade at IAAS Livestock Farm, Rampur.

Level of shade Mean value at different harvest

19-Oct. 8-Apr. 23-May 8- Jul
Vine length/plant (cm) 2006 2007 2007 2007
Heavy shade 40.23 114.67 167.73 185.33
Medium shade 42.13 120.67 182.33 191.63
Low shade 45.80 120.77 185.70 184.83
Open shade 110.73 97.27 123.80 158.1
No. of main branches/plant
Heavy shade 1.78 7.14 9.42 10.16
Medium shade 1.86 8.75 10.97 11.38
Low shade 2.33 9.44 10.81 12.94
Open shade 3.67 10.33 13.56 15.44
Leaves number/plant
Heavy shade 12.57 108.5 219.33 228
Medium shade 14.90 123.6 252.50 247.66
Low shade 16.40 140.40 271.73 278
Open shade 96.83 156.60 295.23 312
Leaf area/plant (cm2)
Heavy shade 2410 4237 6327 7044
Medium shade 2669 4734 6609 7545
Low shade 2909 5188 7405 8633
Open shade 2954 3282 4947 5491

Productivity forage legumes under shade

The fresh weight of herbage was higher in open area in all harvests. The trend was
such that the value decreased as the shade level increased. The fresh weight was found
higher (4.24t/ha) under open shade at last harvest while it was found lowest under heavy
shade (0.23t/ha). Similarly, The highest mean value of cumulative weight of fresh
herbage was 12.07 t/ha under open condition which decreased as the shade level
increased. This was followed by low (10.23 t/ha) and medium shade (9.52 t/ha)
respectively (Table 2). The lowest fresh cumulative weight was 8.64 t/ha in heavy shade.
Forage peanut always had highest cumulative fresh weight in all shade levels while
kudzu had lowest fresh weight except under open shade which was higher than glycine.
The pattern of productivity of dried weight of herbage was similar to that of fresh
weight of biomass. This result also matches with the information of morphological
attributes suchas vine length, number of main and sub branches and number of leaves and
nodes that contributed to the fresh herbage mass and ultimately the dried weight of
herbage. On the other hand, the production of dried herbage in shaded environment could
be altered by competition for available moisture and nutrients, levels of transmitted light,

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and forage canopy (Macfarlane, 1993a). Decrease in specific leaf dry weight for forage
plants grown in shade compared to those grown in full sun light. (Lin et al., 2001) might
also explain findings of this experiment.
The highest cumulative dried weight was obtained at open condition (3.84 t/ha),
which was followed by at low shade (3.32 t/ha) while the lowest dried weight was at
heavy shade (2.6 t/ha). This clearly showed low level of impact of shade for all forage
legumes grown under different levels of shade.

Table 2. The mean fresh weight and dry weight of herbage at different harvests under
Melia tree shade at Livestock Farm, Rampur

Level of shade Mean value at different harvest

19-Oct. 8-Apr. 23-May 8- Jul Cumulative
Fresh weight t/ha 2006 2007 2007 2007
Heavy shade 0.23 1.71 3.09 3.60 8.64
Medium shade 0.24 1.92 3.57 3.78 9.52
Low shade 0.27 2.21 3.76 4.01 10.23
Open shade 2.82 1.90 3.11 4.24 12.07
Dry weight of herbage
(t/ha)
Heavy shade 0.05 0.45 1.03 1.13 2.665
Medium shade 0.06 0.51 1.20 1.43 3.206
Low shade 0.06 0.59 1.27 1.40 3.324
Open shade 0.64 0.61 1.23 1.36 3.841

Nutritive value of forages under shade

The result showed that shaded forage had slightly higher crude protein content
than the forage from open area (Taable 3). The value was higher in heavy shade and
slightly decreased as the shade level increased in all harvests. This might be due to the
fact that N content of the soil was depleted in each harvest which also affected the
nitrogen and consequently the CP content of the forage species (Tienry and Goward,
1983). Similar results also obtained on the experiment of forage grass and legume in
mixture under shade (Barsila, 2006). However, in case of crude fibre and ether extract,
the value was found inconsistent.

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Table 3. The average nutritive value of leguminous forages under Melia tree shade at
livestock Farm, Rampur

Crude protein (CP) % value in different harvest

19-Oct. 8-Apr. 23-May 8- Jul
Level of shade 2006 2007 2007 2007
Heavy shade 18.42 19.78 17.05 15.85
Medium shade 18.70 19.51 15.25 14.24
Low shade 18.95 18.45 16.27 15.01
Open shade 17.78 19.18 16.50 15.41
Crude fibre (CF)
Heavy shade 24.93 24.33 26.32 24.60
Medium shade 25.21 25.15 26.35 24.22
Low shade 26.22 25.15 25.68 23.54
Open shade 26.51 26.37 25.42 24.33
Ether extract (EE)
Heavy shade 5.07 4.61 4.51 4.23
Medium shade 5.26 4.98 4.64 4.62
Low shade 5.11 3.90 4.94 4.40
Open shade 5.47 4.76 5.12 5.04

CONCLUSION

The result showed that the Melia tree shade could rendered direct influence on
morphology, productive performance, as well as chemical composition of leguminous
forages, that could well vary across the shade levels. The growth performance of forage
peanut was relatively better under low shade environment both in terms of morphology
and herbage production mainly due to shade tolerance ability and plant attributes, such as
main branches per plant, and leaf number per plant. However, as shade level decreased,
the performance of forage peanut was similar to other forage species, whereas glycine
and kudzu were comparatively better in medium shade mainly due to higher mean vine
length, and leaf area per pant. This gives us scientific clue that performance of legume
species under different level of shade can be considered as important consideration for
silvipastoral management of legume species under Melia tree shade.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors are grateful to Directorate of Research (DOR), IAAS, Rampur for
providing financial support. Special thanks are offered to the advisors, colleagues and
farmers for their kind cooperation during this study.

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