Sowing Techniques and Cultivars Influence Phenology, Productivity and Profitability of Forage Oat

Abstract

Sustainable fodder production for an expanding livestock sector has become a challenging task in the backdrop of shrinking land and water resources and uncertainty of climatic optima. Improved crop cultivars in conjunction with optimal sowing methods that ensure better resource utilization resulting in better crop growth and productivity seem indispensable in this regard. Oat (Avena sativa L) is an important Rabi fodder crop of Pakistan but its fodder productivity is quite low as compared to other countries. Under this study, contribution of sowing methods and cultivars for improvement in water use efficiency (WUE), fodder and crude protein yield of oat at 50% flowering stage was tested. This study was conducted for two years during Rabi 2014—2015 and 2015–2016 at Fodder Research Institute Sargodha. Two fodder oat cultivars i.e., Sgd.oat-2011 and No-75525 were sown adopting ridge, drill and broadcast methods. Statistical analysis of data on water use, agronomic parameters and economic returns from both cultivars and sowing methods perspective revealed significant differences. Oat cultivar Sgd.oat-2011 performed better than cultivar No.-75525 and among sowing methods ridge sowing technique improved fodder yield by 18.48%. It was found that ridge sowing improved the irrigation efficiency up to 46.16% over broadcasting. Economic analysis showed a maximum benefit-cost ratio of 2.75 for plots where oat cultivar Sgd.oat-2011 was ridge sown.