Abstract: The experiment was conducted at the teaching and research farm of the Department of Agriculture, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Ndele Campus to evaluate the potentials of lateritic soils as an alternative for the production of elephant grass for biofuel and fodder. The performance of elephant grass was assessed on the normal loamy soil, laterite soil and sandy soil. Thus, the soil types were the treatment replicated 10 times to give 30 experimental units arranged in a completely randomized design. Data taken were plant height, number of leaves, number of tillers, leaf length, leaf area, plant fresh weight and dry weight. The study revealed that loamy soil had best values in all parameters. While the values in all measured parameters were most different between loamy soil and sandy soil, there was no significant difference in initial plant height, in the number of leaves, number of tillers, plant fresh and dry weights. Therefore, elephant grass can be alternatively cultivated on lateritic soils for both biofuel production and the cut and feed (zero grazing) cattle production in Nigeria.
Keywords: Elephant grass, Soil types, Forage, Feedstock, Ethanol production, Nigeria.
Title: POTENTIALS OF LATERITE SOIL FOR THE PRODUCTION OF ELEPHANT GRASS (Pennisetum purpureum) IN NIGERIA
Author: ANSA J.E.O, WIRO, K.O, Garjila, Y. A
International Journal of Life Sciences Research
ISSN 2348-313X (Print), ISSN 2348-3148 (online)
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