. Rotowa and Adeagbo

Research Journal of Agricultur ture and Forestry Sciences __________________________ __________ISSN 2320 – 6063 Vol. 7(3), 27-31, July (2019) Res. J. Agriculture and Forestry Sci. Provenance trial of Gmeli lina aborea (Roxb.) in middle-Belt lt Zone Z of Nigeria Rotowa O.J.1* and Adeagbo A.A.2 1 Department of Forestry and W Wildlife Management, Nasarawa State University Keffi, Shabu-L Lafia, Nigeria 2 Department off F Forest Production and Products, University of Ibadan, Nigeria odunrotowa@yahoo.com Available online at: www.isca.in Received 20th Fe February 2019, revised 30th April 2019, accepted 6th June 2019 Abstract A field experiment was conducted to exa xamine the provenance germination and growth trial off Gmelina G arborea (Roxb.) within three states (Makurdi, Nasarawa aand Abuja) in middle-belt zone of Nigeria. The experime ment was carried out in the nursery site of the Department of Forestry ry and Wildlife Management, Nasrawa State University Lafia. La 500 seeds of Gmelina were collected from each location, it wass ssun-dried for 6 hours and then soaked in water for 24 hours ho to break its dormancy and improve its germination rate. It was th then planted on germination beds in the nursery and transp nsplanted after two weeks of germination into nursery pots and data wa was recorded on Plant height, Number of leaves and collar lar girth. The study was laid in a Randomized Completely Block Des esign (RCBD), Analysis of variance was performed on o the data to show the comparative performance of each treatme ment with another. Duncan’s Multiple Range Test (DMR RT) was applied to locate where the significant difference occur amo mong the seeds. The result of germination with respect to location revealed that G. arborea seed collected from Nasarawa rec ecorded the highest germination of plant height (34.75±9.2 .24) followed by seeds from Makurdi (33.66±6.54) while the least (33 33.22±5.71) was recorded on seeds collected from Abuja. ja. Makurdi seeds recorded highest number of leaves (19.56±3.59), fol followed by Nasarawa (18.68±3.39) and the least (16.53±2 ±2.98) in Abuja. The result of collar girth reveals that seeds collect ected in Lafia had the highest mean value (2.39±1.83) followed by Abuja seeds (2.37±0.42) and the least mean (2.01±0.3 0.34) was recorded in Makurdi collections. The result of the correlation analysis revealed that there was a significant corre rrelation between the plant height and other assessed para arameters. The result of the regression analysis on the effects of growth wth variables on tree plant height had coefficient of (R2 = 0.93). Result of this study showed that location significantly affect ct germination and growth rate of G.arborea. Moreso, when raising G.arborea seedlings for plantation establishment inn middle belt Nigeria, seeds sourced from Lafia should be b considered and further research should be carried out on pretreatm atment of G. arborea seed. Keywords: Gmelina arborea, seedlings, ggermination, seeds and plantation. Introduction Gmelina arborea (Roxb.) is a pioneer tree nat ative to Asia, it was introduced to tropical Africa from South-E East Asia1. It was introduced to Enugu state, Nigeria in in1921 where an international provenance trial was establis lished for Gmelina arborea and Gmelina leicharadtii (F. Muell.) ll.) Benth. in Enugu. The trials were assessed on the provenance du during the civil war when some of the trees were harvested forr war purpose. The result of the provenance trials show that Gm melina leicharadtii was not suited to Nigeria conditions. Gmelin lina arborea, on the other hand, showed high adaptability and vigo igour. Plantations of Gmelina arborea has since then being spread ading to other parts of the country. Presently, plantations of Gm melina arborea are established mainly for timber, poles, pulp and nd paper production in many parts of the country2. Gmelina arborea is a deciduous tree of verb rbenaceae family of and subclass of Dicotyledonea. The name G Gmelina was given after eighteenth century by a German Botan tanist J.C Gmelina3. Other member of the family is Tectona gra randis (L.F). Other species of Gmelina are Gmelina dalrymplea leana (F.Mull.) H.J International Science Community Associa iation Lam., Gmelina fasciculiflora (Be Benth.), Gmelina moluccana (Blume.) Becker ex K.Heyne4. Gmelina Gm consists of about 33 species of trees and shrubs. Its’ trade tr name include Gmelina, Gumhara and Gumhari. It’s a tree that th reaches a height of about 35m and a diameter of more than 3m in the natural stands of the tropical and subtropical regions off Asia, A it lives up to 40 years5. Gmelina arborea is a native of Pak akistan, East of Myanmar and South of Srilanka, South Chinaa and Thailand. It is widely planted in these countries and larg arge scale plantations are also found in Nigeria, Senegal, and Gha hana6. Gmelina arborea grows best within the temperature rangee of o 18°C and 35°C7. It grows well in areas with distinct dry seas ason and annual rainfall range of 1,776mm and 2,280mm, atmosph pheric humidity of 40%7. Due to the potentials of Gmelina aborae ab and an ever increasing demand for commercial and other er purposes, Gmelina aborae plantations suffer massive deforestation de without any reforestation or afforestation plan an for the specie. Also, Beet reported that Gmelina is faced with ith the problem of annual bush burning, seed dormancy, poorr seed viability, and over exploitation8. Hence, there is need d to t evaluate the growth rate of Gmelina aborea seeds collected from fro different locations within 27 Research Journal of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences______________________________________________ ISSN 2320 – 6063 Vol. 7(3), 27-31, July (2019) Res. J. Agriculture and Forestry Sci. middle belt Nigeria and mass raised in the nursery as an attempt and continuous attention to solve these problems. Materials and methods Study area and site preparation: This experiment was carried out in the Departmental nursery of Forestry and Wildlife Department of the Faculty of Agriculture, Nasarawa State University Keffi, Shabu-Lafia Campus. Lafia, (08º35ʹ N, 08º33ʹ E), located in the Guinea Savannah zone of North Central Nigeria at an altitude of about 177m above sea level. The mean monthly maximum temperature range is between 35.06oC to 36.40oC and 20.16oC to 20.50oC respectively while the mean monthly relative humidity and rainfall are 74.67% and 168.90mm respectively9. A portion of land allocated was cleared with cutlass and hoe, the debris was packed and biological fencing was erected round the portion of land, then ground leveled. Seed collection, processing and Pretreatment: The Gmelina arborea seeds were collected from Nasarawa State Polytechnic Lafia, University of Agriculture Makurdi and Agbekoya Farmers Association Kwali Abuja. The seeds were picked directly from the ground under plus trees of Gmelina arborea. The seeds were broadcasted in the nursery and out of which 500 young seedlings were later transplanted into polythene pots making a total of 1,500 seedlings used for this practical exercise. Treatment, seed sowing and silvicultural operation: The seeds were sun-dried for 6 hours and then soaked in water for twenty-four hours in order to break its dormancy and improve its germination rate, after which it was sown on the nursery beds. The seeds were sown on the nursery bed and watered twice daily (mornings and evenings). From all the germinations, 500 seeds were sown in the pot from each location. The seedlings after two weeks of germination were transplanted into nursery pots at 4cm depth after which watering was done once daily (evenings). Hoeing and hand weeding were carried out in the nursery site so as to reduce competition between weeds and Gmelina seedlings for water, sunlight and nutrients. Parameter assessed and Data Analysis: The parameter assessed for the period of 16 weeks are: Plant height, Collar girth and Leaf count. The Data collected was subjected to mean and Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and significant mean differences were separated at 0.05 probability level10. Correlation analysis was used to establish the relationship between the growths parameters of three (3) different seed sources. Results and discussion Mean result for growth variables on the basis of location and duration: The result of the mean values of growth parameters assessed based on the location and duration is shown in Table-1. The seeds of Gmelina collected from Nasarawa had International Science Community Association the highest mean values of the growth parameters with 34.75±9.24 in plant height, followed by 33.66±6.54 in Makurdi and the least value of plant height was recorded in seeds collected from Abuja with mean value of 33.22±5.71. The result of number of leaves produced reveals that Makurdi seedlings had the highest number of leave production with 19.56±3.59 followed by 18.68±3.39 recorded in Lafia seedlings while the least mean value of 16.53±2.98 was again recorded in Abuja seedlings. The result of number of collar girth reveals that Gmelina arborea seedlings sourced from Lafia again had the highest mean collar girth of 2.39±1.83, followed by 2.37±0.42 recorded in Abuja collections while the least mean collar girth of 2.01±0.34 was recorded in Makurdi collections. With respect to duration, the result showed that as the week increase the values of accessed parameters also increase. Week 16 recorded the highest mean growth parameter in all respect with 42.38±6.37cm in plant height, 22.76±3.95 number of leaves and 3.05±0.36cm in collar girth. Followed by week 12 with 39.38±6.37cm in Plant height, 20.76±3.05 number of leaves and 2.58±0.27cm on collar girth while week 4 had the least mean plant height (27.66±4.62), number of leaves (15.58±2.86) and collar girth with mean value of 1.99±1.82 (Table-1). Table-1: Mean value and Duncan mean separation value for growth variables on the. Collar girth Source of Plant height Leave number (cm) variation (cm) Location Nasarawa 34.75±9.24a 18.68±3.39a 2.39±1.83a Makudi 33.66±6.54a 19.56±3.59b 2.01±0.34b Abuja 33.22±5.71a 16.53±2.98c 2.37±0.42b Duration 4 weeks 27.66±4.62a 15.58±2.86a 1.99±1.82a 8 weeks 34.59±5.46b 18.43±2.66b 2.18±0.37a 12 weeks 39.38±6.37c 20.76±3.05c 2.58±0.27b 16 weeks 42.38±6.37c 22.76±3.95c 3.05±0.36b General 38.87±7.32 19.26±3.55 2.85±1.11 mean Note: figures with the same alphabet in the same column are not significantly different, ar p< 0.05 Result of analysis of variance for growth parameter assessed: The result of the ANOVA for growth parameters assessed shows that there was no significant difference in Plant height (0.13ns) among the locations while there was significant difference (0.00**) between the period of data collection, there was significant difference (0.00**) in the interaction between Location and duration of data collection. The result of collar 28 Research Journal of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences______________________________________________ ISSN 2320 – 6063 Vol. 7(3), 27-31, July (2019) Res. J. Agriculture and Forestry Sci. girth also reveals that there was significant different in location (0.03**) and duration (0.00**) at p<0.05, the interaction between Location and duration of data collection also shows significant difference in collar girth. The Anova result of leaf production shows significant different in Location and duration (0.00**) and the interaction between Location and duration (0.02*) Table-2. Result of Correlation and Regression analysis of parameters assessed: The result of the correlation analysis showed that there was a significant correlation between the seed location and number of leaves (0.349**), germination and plant height Table-2: Analysis of variance of parameters assessed. Parameter assessed Plant height Collar girth Number of leaves (0.656**), germination and collar girth (0.203**), germination and number of leaves (0.590**). It also showed that there was a significant correlation between the number of leaves and leaf area (0.934**), plant height and collar girth (0.147*), plant height and number of leaves (0.577**) and likewise there was a significant correlation between the collar girth and number of leaves (0.144*) (Table-3). The result of the regression analysis on the effects of growth variables on tree plant height had coefficient of (R2=0.930). This therefore means that the assessed growth variables had about 93% effect on plant height of Gmelina arborea seeds collected from different locations within middle-belt Nigeria (Table-4). Sum of squares df Mean square F Sig. Location 111.59 2 55.79 2.04 0.132** Duration 6625.32 2 3217.66 114.46 0.000** Location*duration 937.99 4 234.49 8.58 0.000** Error 7131.56 261 27.32 Total 324330.06 270 Location 8.31 2 4.15 3.55 0.03** Duration 16.36 2 8.18 6.99 0.00** Location*duration 3.17 4 0.79 0.67 0.60** Error 305.14 261 1.17 Total 1709.32 270 Location 438.76 2 219.27 34.19 0.00** Duration 1210.34 2 605.17 94.37 0.00** 79.88 4 19.97 3.11 0.02** Error 1673.56 261 6.41 Total 93457.00 270 Source of variation Location*duration R2 0.506 0.084 0.508 Table-3: Correlation analysis for parameters assessed. Source of variation Seed location Germination Plant height Collar girth Seed location 1 Germination 0.000 1 Plant height 0.025 0.656** 1 Collar girth -0.141* 0.203** 0.147* 1 Number of leaves 0.349** 0.590** 0.577** 0.144* Num. of leaves 1 **= correlation is significant at 1% level p< 0.01, *= correlation is significant at 5% level p<0.05. International Science Community Association 29 Research Journal of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences______________________________________________ ISSN 2320 – 6063 Vol. 7(3), 27-31, July (2019) Res. J. Agriculture and Forestry Sci. Table-4: Regression analysis influence on the plant height. Un-standardized coefficient Standardized coefficient T B Std. error Beta (constant) -37.60 3.954 Location 0.216 0.123 Duration 22.705 Collar girth Number of leaves Models B Sig. -9.51 0.000** 0.040 1.765 0.079 0.564 0.931 40.237 0.000** -0.262 0.595 -0.007 -0.440 0.660 0.154 0.238 0.014 0.649 0.517 S.E.E. 0.930 Note: ** = highly significant at 1% probability level, * = significant at p<0.05, ns = not significant, Dependent Variable: Plant Height. S.E.E mean Standard Error Estimate. Discussion: The result of the study showed that seeds of Gmelina arborea collected from Nasarawa state Polytechnic Lafiahad the highest germination rate than other seeds sourced from Makurdi and Abuja as reported in Table-1, this could be ascribed to the fact that the seeds viability differ as a result of different climatic traits from the mother plants and also the seeds from this particular location were so vigorous in nature, since all the seeds from all the locations were subjected to the same treatment (drying and soaking) as it leads to rapid germination of seeds and establishment of the seedling. This agrees with the finding of Agboola and Etejere who reported that “drying and soaking is the most suitable treatment for releasing dormancy in Gmelina arborea seeds”11. The continuous growth noticed as at the period of data collection could be attributed to the fact the Gmelina stands is still at the sapling stage hence, growing at rapid rate. This is in accordance with the report of Rotowa et al. on Moringa olifera expose to fertilizer treatment12, also with Egbewole et al. on Gmelina arborea intercropped with agronomic plants on agro forestry plots2 and Baligar et al. who reported the uptake of macronutrients to be significantly influenced by species, with time in a study he carried out at Beltsville Agricultural Research Centre, Beltsville, Maryland, in South America13. The difference in the nutrients uptake was attributed to differences in dry matter accumulation among different species. In his study, nine cover crop species were used and they showed a significant difference in growth parameters and nutrient uptake, influx, transport, and utilization efficiency at different time on different tree crop. Conclusion It is evident from this research that the seeds vary in viability based on the location, as it was observed that seed collected from Lafia, Nasarawa state recorded more viability than the other two locations, therefore when raising Gmelina arborea seedlings for plantation establishment in middle belt Nigeria, seeds sourced from Lafia should be considered. Based on the International Science Community Association result of this study, It is recommended that further research be carried out on the pretreatment of Gmelina arborea seeds. Abbreviations: G. Arborea: Gmelina arborea; ANOVA: Analysis of Variance, ns: Not Significant, N: North, E: East, DMRT: Duncan Multiple Range Test. Acknowledgements We will like to appreciate the Management of the Department of Forestry and Wildlife Management, Faculty of Agriculture, Nasarawa State University for providing an enabling environment to carry out this research. References 1. Ogbonnaya C.I., Nwalozie M.C. and Nwaigbo L.C. (1992). Growth and wood properties of Gmelina arborea (Verbenaceae) seedlings grown under five soil moisture regimes. American Journal of Botany, 79(2), 128-132. 2. Egbewole Z.T., Falade L.O., Rotowa O.J., Kuje E.D. and Mairafi H.H. (2018). Evaluation of the Effect of Agricultural Crop on the Growth Performance of Gmelina arborea under Agroforestry System. Proceedings of the 36thAnnual Conference of Horticultural Society of Nigeria (Hortson), Lafia 2018 Faculty of Agriculture Shabu-Lafia Campus, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Nasarawa State, Nigeria. ISSN 978-978-54729-6-7 3. Moldenke H.N. (1984). Additional notes on the genus Gmelina IV. Phytologia, 56(2), 102-126. 4. Soevianegera I. and Lemmens M.J. (2003). Plant Resources of South. East Asia No, 1. 5. Dvorak W. (2003). Recent Advances with Gmelina arborea CAMCORE: World View of Gmelina arborea: Opportunities & Challenges. North Caroline State University. Raleight, NC: USA. 30 Research Journal of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences______________________________________________ ISSN 2320 – 6063 Vol. 7(3), 27-31, July (2019) Res. J. Agriculture and Forestry Sci. 6. Adegbehin J.O., Abayomi J.O. and Nwaibo L.B. (1988). Gmeuna arborea in nigeria. The Commonwealth Forestry Review, 67(2), 159-166. 10. Steel R.G.D., Torrie D.A. and Dickey D.A. (1997). Principles and produce of statistics: A biometric approach 3rd ed. McGraw Hill Book Co. Inc. New York: 400-428. 7. Oduwaiye E.A. (2006). Pattern of Flowering and Fruiting of Gmelina arborea (Roxb) Seed of Orchards in Southern Nigeria. 11. Agboola D.A. and Etejere E.O. (1991). Studies on seed dormancy of selected economic tropical forest tree species. Nigerian Journal of Botany, 4, 115-126. 8. Beets W.C. (2009). The Potential Role of Agroforestry in ACP Countries. Technical Centre for Agric and Rural Cooperation (ACP - SEC lOME CONVENTION), Netherlands. 9. Jayeoba O.J. (2013). Land suitability evaluation for arable agriculture in Nasarawa state using Geo- information. APh. D Thesis department of geography, Nasarawa State University Keffi. 247. 12. Rotowa O.J., Ugonma D.A., Egbewole Z.T. and Bhadmus H.B. (2017). Growth Response of Moringa oleifera Lam. to Organic and Mineral Fertilizers Treatment. International Journal of Applied Research and Technology, 6(5), 5156. International Science Community Association 13. Baligar V.C., Fageria N.K., Paiva A., Silveira A., Souza Jr J.O., Lucena E., Faria J.C., Cabral R., Pomella A.W.V. and Jorda J. (2008). Light Intensity Effects on Growth and Nutrient-use Efficiency of Tropical Legume Cover Crops. Toward Advances in Agroforestry Volume 4, Agroforestry Design an Ecological Approach, 4, 67-78. 31