FORAGE YIELD AND NUTRITIVE QUALITY OF TWO GROUNDNUT (ARACHIS HYPOGAEA L) VARIETIES AS INFLUENCED BY FERTILIZER TYPES

Abstract

This study was carried out to investigate the forage yield and nutritive quality of two groundnut (SAMNUT 22 and local) varieties as influenced by fertilizer type in the humid ecological zone of Nigeria. The study was a 3 x 2 factorial experiment in a split-plot design with the fertilizer type (poultry droppings, NPK and the control) as the main plot and variety (SAMNUT 22 and Local) as the sub-plot which amounts to six treatments with three replicates. The inorganic-fertilized SAMNUT 22 had the highest forage dry matter (DM) yield (10.23 t/ha). The inorganic-fertilized local variety had the highest DM (94.60 %) and the least DM value (93.68 %) recorded for inorganic-fertilized SAMNUT 22. The highest and least crude protein (21.71 % vs 18.28%) contents were recorded for inorganic-fertilized local and unfertilized SAMNUT 22 variety, respectively. The neutral detergent fibre (NDF), acid detergent fibre (ADF) and acid detergent lignin (ADL) that were recorded for the unfertilized SAMNUT 22 were the highest with values 58.13 %, 25.86 % and 3.35 %, respectively. The highest gas (57.75 ml/200mgDM) production, methane (13.50 ml/200mgDM) and in vitro dry matter digestibility (70.22 %) were recorded for unfertilized local variety, unfertilized SAMNUT 22 and organic-fertilized local variety, respectively. The unfertilized SAMNUT 22 had the highest tannin content of 6.43 mg/100g and saponin content of 9.29 mg/100g whereas the organically fertilized Local variety had the highest oxalate (140.65 mg/100g) content. In conclusion, the two varieties and especially SAMNUT 22 when inorganic fertilizer was applied have proved to be good feed resource with regards to high yield, CP and low anti-nutrient quality and are recommended as forage of high nutritive values for ruminant animal production.