Forage productivity of arbila (Phaseolus lunatus) at various levels of rhizobium inoculants and harvesting times

Abstract

The study was conducted to evaluate forage productivity of arbila (Phaseolus lunatus) as the ruminant feed at various levels of rhizobium inoculants and harvesting times, was designed following completely randomized design of factorial pattern with two factors. The first factor was the level of inoculums (I) i.e. I1 (without inoculum), I2 (5 g/kg seed), I3 (10 g/kg seed), and I4 (15 g/kg seed). The second factor was harvesting time (U) i.e. U1 (60 days), U2 (80 days), U3 (100 days) with 4 replications. The variables were N uptake, production of dry matter (DM) and organic matter (OM), and percentage of OM, crude protein (CP), crude fiber (CF), nitrogen free extract (NFE), extract ether (EE) and ash of arbila forage (based on DM). The results showed that inoculant treatment at the rate of 15 g/kg seed produced the highest percentage of effective nodules (98.72%), and in combination with harvesting age at 100 days each polybag of plant was able to absorb the higest amount of N (688. 10 g) with production of DM 273.81 g, OM production 263.96 g and nutrients content based on DM of about 91.14% OM, 33.52% CF, 34.76%, 5.75% EE, 09.37% ash, and 16.16% CP. From the study, it can be concluded that arbila plants inoculated specific rhizobium Phaseolus vulgaris at the rate of 15 g/kg seed and harvested at 100 days yielded the best forage as feed.