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    Brachiaria Grass: New Forage Option For Sub-Saharan Africa: Contacts

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    elinzola
    1. Brachiaria grass is an important forage crop in sub-Saharan Africa that can be established from seeds, rooted tillers, or stem cuttings. It produces high biomass and improves soil fertility. 2. Brachiaria grows well in sub-humid and humid areas with over 700mm of rain annually where it can be grown using cut-and-carry or grazing systems. Varieties suitable for different regions are described. 3. Land preparation includes plowing, mixing soil with manure, and potentially applying fertilizers. Seeds are drilled or tillers are planted and require irrigation initially. Harvesting begins after 4-5 months.

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    Brachiaria Grass: New Forage Option For Sub-Saharan Africa: Contacts

    Uploaded by

    elinzola
    196 views2 pages
    1. Brachiaria grass is an important forage crop in sub-Saharan Africa that can be established from seeds, rooted tillers, or stem cuttings. It produces high biomass and improves soil fertility. 2. Brachiaria grows well in sub-humid and humid areas with over 700mm of rain annually where it can be grown using cut-and-carry or grazing systems. Varieties suitable for different regions are described. 3. Land preparation includes plowing, mixing soil with manure, and potentially applying fertilizers. Seeds are drilled or tillers are planted and require irrigation initially. Harvesting begins after 4-5 months.

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    Grass Variety

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    brachiaria_brochure

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    1. Brachiaria grass is an important forage crop in sub-Saharan Africa that can be established from seeds, rooted tillers, or stem cuttings. It produces high biomass and improves soil fertility. 2. Brachiaria grows well in sub-humid and humid areas with over 700mm of rain annually where it can be grown using cut-and-carry or grazing systems. Varieties suitable for different regions are described. 3. Land preparation includes plowing, mixing soil with manure, and potentially applying fertilizers. Seeds are drilled or tillers are planted and require irrigation initially. Harvesting begins after 4-5 months.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    196 views2 pages

    Brachiaria Grass: New Forage Option For Sub-Saharan Africa: Contacts

    Uploaded by

    elinzola
    1. Brachiaria grass is an important forage crop in sub-Saharan Africa that can be established from seeds, rooted tillers, or stem cuttings. It produces high biomass and improves soil fertility. 2. Brachiaria grows well in sub-humid and humid areas with over 700mm of rain annually where it can be grown using cut-and-carry or grazing systems. Varieties suitable for different regions are described. 3. Land preparation includes plowing, mixing soil with manure, and potentially applying fertilizers. Seeds are drilled or tillers are planted and require irrigation initially. Harvesting begins after 4-5 months.

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    of 2

    AVCD Extension brief

    Weed control Contacts


    ● Weed infestation is likely at early stages of the James Rao, ILRI
    crop cultivation. Weeds should be removed
    manually, but board-leaf weeds can be
    AVCD dairy component coordinator
    +254204223452; j.rao@cgiar.org
    Brachiaria grass:
    controlled with herbicide.

    Pests and diseases


    Sita Ghimire, ILRI New forage option for
    Senior scientist, plant pathologist
    ● Red spider mites and shoot borers are the
    common pests that attack Brachiaria grass.
    +254204223820; s.ghimire@cgiar.org sub-Saharan Africa
    ● Some of the diseases observed in Kenya include
    rust, ergot, smut and leaf spots.

    Harvesting
    ● Brachiaria grass is suitable for both cut-and-
    carry and grazing systems, and can be
    conserved as hay and silage.
    ● The first crop is harvested four–five months
    after planting by cutting at a height of 5 cm
    above the ground.
    ● Subsequent harvest can made at very 8-12 weeks
    depending on soil moisture and nutrients.

    About AVCD
    This material was produced on behalf of the Feed
    the Future Kenya Accelerated Value Chain
    Development (AVCD) program. This program
    seeks to widely apply technologies and innovations
    for four value chains—dairy, livestock, staple
    drought tolerant crops and staple root crops—in
    order to competitively and sustainably increase
    productivity, contributing to inclusive agricultural
    growth, nutrition and food security in the country.
    The main goal of AVCD is to sustainably reduce
    poverty and hunger in the Feed the Future zones of
    influence in Kenya.

    Focusing on the livestock, dairy, staple crops root


    crops and staple drought tolerant crops value
    chains in Kenya, AVCD aims to lift 317,000
    households out of poverty, making them food
    secure and enabling their transition from
    subsistence to market-orientated farming. This publication is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. June 2016
    1. Introduction Establishment Rooted tillers
    Brachiaria, a native African grass, is important ● Brachiaria can be established from seeds or rooted ● The Brachiaria tillers with roots can be used as
    constituent of natural vegetation across sub- tillers (plant shoots) and stem cuttings with rooting planting materials. Two–three tillers are planted
    Saharan Africa. Brachiaria grass consists of over nodes. on each hill at a spacing of 50 cm between
    100 species but only four species are widely rows and 25 cm within the rows.
    evaluated as cultivated pastures in tropical Africa. Photo 1: Brachiaria root splits ● Planting of rooted tillers should be performed at
    It is the most extensively cultivated forage in onset of rainy season or transplant should be
    South America, Australia and East Asia. irrigated for proper establishment.
    However, the use of Brachiaria as cultivated ● A total of 64,000–96,000 tillers are required per acre.
    forages in Africa is extremely limited.
    Photo 3: Brachiaria nursery preparation

    2. Benefits of brachiaria
    Brachiaria grass produces a lot of nutritious
    biomass (as much as 15 tonnes of dry matter per
    acre/year), which in turn, when fed to livestock,
    increases milk and meat production. Brachiaria is
    drought tolerant and adapted to low fertility soils
    of sub-Saharan Africa; it can play a significant role
    in soil fertility improvement, soil conservation,
    increasing bio-diversity and minimizing greenhouse
    Seeds
    gas emissions.
    ● Create shallow furrows (1–2 cm deep) spaced at 50
    cm from the onset of rains.
    3. Production environments ● To plant, continuously drill seeds along the furrows
    ● Brachiaria grows well in different agro- and cover with soil.
    ecological zones of tropical Africa. It ● An acre of land requires 2–3 kg of good quality
    performs best in sub-humid and humid seeds.
    environments where rainfalls surpass 700 ● Alternatively, seeds can be first sown in nursery bed Varieties
    mm and mean temperature exceeds 19°C. and seedlings transplanted to the main plots at the ● Brachiaria decumbens cv. Basilisk, B. brizantha cv. MG4,
    ● Lower temperatures slow down the growth age of six–eight weeks. B. brizantha cv. Piatã, and B. brizantha cv. Xaraés are the
    rates, hence the Brachiaria grass performs ● In the nursery bed, seeds are sown in furrows best bet varieties for semi-arid, sub-humid and humid
    poorly 1800 m above the sea level. spaced at 5 cm and mulched with dry grass. areas of Kenya and Rwanda.
    ● It grows on a wide range of soil types ● Brachiaria hybrid cv. Mulato II is suitable for
    including those of low fertility. Photo 2: Brachiaria root split planting coastal low lands.
    ● Locations that experience longer dry seasons of
    over five months are not suitable for Brachiaria, Manure and fertilizer
    unless there is provision for irrigation. ● The pasture in the ‘cut-and-carry system’
    removes substantial amount of soil nutrients.
    4. Brachiaria production ● To maintain soil fertility, it is necessary to apply
    Land preparation 2–4 tonnes of well-cured manure per acre.
    ● Plough, harrow and thoroughly mix soil with ● Brachiaria is highly responsive to nitrogen;
    well cured manures at the rate of 2–4 application of 80 kg calcium ammonium nitrate
    tonnes/acre. fertilizer per acre/season is advised.
    ● In cases where the soils are low in
    phosphorus, it is advisable to apply 100 kg
    triple super phosphate fertilizer per acre.

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