Pasture Research Intervarietal Variation in Persistency and Aggressiveness in Anjan Grass (Cenchrus setigerus Vahl.) and the Technique for its Estimation

Among the various characters that determine the economic value of a forage variety, persistency and aggressiveness are of considerable importance particularly in case of those species or varieties which are meant for increase of forage from a native pastureland. The precise criteria for judging the relative degree of expression of these characters and a method for estimating the same have not been adequately investigated in the past, in the pasture research work. In the present paper, while studying the varietal differences in these two characters, it is suggested that the character of persistency may be adequately understood by the proportion of sterile to fertile tillers, plant size and a continued increase in its volume with almost absence or presence of a very little of the dead matter portion of the clones over a long growth period. For the character of aggressiveness the criteria suggested are the total canopy of plants, their relative resistance to the encroachment of other vegetation, their efficiency in auto-regeneration and in competition for survival with associated flora in a mixed stand. Using these criteria, eight varieties of Cenchrus setigerus grass have been evaluated for the expression of their characters- persistency and aggressiveness. From among these eight varieties, P.S. 31 has shown a striking superiority in these characters. This variety also is among the best forage producing varieties. This suggests that it looks possible to obtain, in a single variety, the character of high forage production of superior quality and also characters of persistency and aggressiveness in a greater measure. These studies further indicate that the high production of underground organs per unit area appears to be one of the attributes for the high expression of these two characters in the present material.