Abstract

---

The experiment was undertaken at Agarfa and Gasera sites of the Bale highland with the objectives to evaluate forage yield performance of some forage legumes undersown with maize and to assess their effect on grain yield of maize. Accordingly, four types of forage legumes Vecia dacycarpa, Trifolium quartinanium, Melilotus alba and Hunter river were tested in randomized complete block design with four replications. The two sites combined analysis revealed that the dry matter yield recorded were significantly (p < 0.05) differ among the tested treatments. The highest (3.0t/ha) forage dry matter yield was recorded from vetch-maize treatment whereas the least forage dry matter yield (0.71 t/ha) was harvested from trifolium-maize treatment. The two sites combined result also showed that there were a significant (p < 0.05) differences in maize grain yield among the tested treatments. However, there was no significant (p> 0.05) differences among the tested treatments in grain yield at Agarfa site. The highest grain yield (39.2quintal/ha) was harvested from sole maize treatment followed by trifolium-maize treatment (33.6quintal/ha). The lowest (28.7 quintal/ha) yield was produced by alfalfa-maize treatment. However, there was no significant (p>0.05) grain yield differences among the control (sole maize) and trifolium-maize treatments. The two sites mean grain yield result indicated that 26.7%, 24.4%, 22.4%, and 14.2% of yield reduction were calculated due to Hunter river, Vecia dacycarpa, Melilotus alba and Trifolium quartinanium under sown with maize respectively. The reason for maize yield reduction could be due to the competition of the forage legumes for nutrient. The choice of the right time of sowing forage legume under the maize plant could be also the factors for the yield reduction recorded in this study. Hence, the right time of under sowing of forage legume to the cereal and the right choices of both food and forage crop is critical to have a good forage production without affecting the grain yield of the main crop. For this particular experiment, there is the possibility to minimize the grain yield reduction by adjusting the time of under sowing of forage legumes to the maize forage crops. Hence it needs further study on the time of under sown forage crops and selecting the best compatible forage legume that can produce higher forage production as the expense of minimum grain yield reduction.

---