Estimation of Browse Productivity for Acacia seyal (Delile) in Alazzazah Area, Blue Nile State, Sudan

Document Type : Research and Full Length Article

Authors

1 Department of Range Science, College of Forestry and Range Science, Sudan University of Science and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan

2 Department of Food Science and Technology, College of Agricultural Studies, Sudan University of Science and Technology, Shambat, Khartoum North, Sudan

Abstract

Fodder trees and shrubs are crucial sources of animal feed in Sudan, particularly in arid and semi-arid areas. This is because they can fill up the feed gaps in the summer period when grassland growth is limited due to unfavorable weather conditions. The study was conducted in Elnour forest-southeastern Sudan in 2015, which is dominated by Acacia seyal. The objectives of this study were to estimate the browse productivity, and to establish relationships with the crown area for Acacia seyal. The twig-count method described in this study converts a count of twigs to weight of browse by use of an average weight per twig for individual trees. Regression analysis was used to establish relationships between browse biomass and crown area. The average available browse (8.1 kg/ha) and tree density (162 tree/ha) for Acacia seyal was low in the study area that makes the density as the main factor that determine the amount of available browse/ha. Strong positive correlations were found between browse biomass productivity (available and total browse) and crown area with average values of 0.86 and 0.90, respectively. The study concluded that crown area as the main parameters used for predicting the browse biomass productivity. It is recommended that more effort be made to expand the use of more species to investigate the relationships between browse biomass productivity and growth parameters.

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References

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Journal of Rangeland Science
Volume 7, Issue 4 - Serial Number 4
Autumn 2017
Pages 341-347

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History

  • Receive Date: 09 October 2016
  • Revise Date: 31 December 2016
  • Accept Date: 05 January 2017

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