Demonstration of Improved Elephant/Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) Technologies for Animal Feed Resources in Dire Dawa and Harari Region rural areas

Sustainable livestock production is highly dependent on the availability of quality feed and forage resources. Napier grass, also known as elephant or Uganda grass, is one of the most important tropical forage crops. It is widely used in cut and carries feeding systems [1] and is of growing importance in other agricultural systems. Napier grass possesses many desirable characteristics, including high yield per unit area, tolerance to intermittent drought and high water use effi ciency making it forage of choice. It has the ability to withstand repeated cutting and will rapidly regenerate, producing palatable leafy shoots [2]. Agriculture is back bone of Ethiopian economy and accounts for 46% of Gross Domestic product and, livestock sector contributes 30% to35% and more than 85% of cash income. The subsector also accounts for 19% export earnings [3].


Data collection
Both quantitative data sheet were collected by data sheet and qualitative through personal fi eld observation, individual interview, Focus Group Discussion by using checklist.

Data analysis
Quantitative data was analysed using simple descriptive statistics (Mean, Frequency and Percentage) while the qualitative analysed by was analyzed using narrative explanation.  Table 2. mortality of young stock, longer inter calving intervals and low animal weights [7].

Training of farmers and other stalk holders
Use of improved forages would reduce pressure on natural pasture, improve soil fertility and erosion of marginal lands, improve carbon sequestration to mitigate climate change, support system substantially and enhance natural assets and system reliance [7,8], for instances some of improved forage species can be used for these above services are desho grass, elephant grasses, sesebainiasesban, Rhodes, oats, cow pea and others [3]. Therefore, to overcome this livestock production loss using alternative feed resources like Napier/Elephant grass is indispensable. Having this in consideration this research activity was developed to improve feed security of

Materials and methods
This research activity was undertaken in selected districts of Dire Dawa and Harari region.

Site and farmers selection
The Kebeles as research sites were selected purposively based on the potentiality, appropriateness of the area by considering lodging, slop's land escape, access to road, suit for repeatable monitoring and evaluation in progress of sowing to harvesting, accordingly, Kile and Dodota from Harari and Wahil, and Bishan Bahe from Dire Dawa were selected. And also, farmers were selected based on their interest, innovation he/she has, land provision for this demonstration, interest in cost-sharing, willingness to share experiences for other farmers, and studying their profi le Table 1.

Research design and implementation
Elephant/Napier grass cuttings (two varieties IRLI14983 and local check were selected for this demonstration purpose, because IRLI14983 variety was being adaptable in these environment when its adaptation trial on research station was conducted. Then, cuttings of Elephant grass were prepared in form of at least 5cm-8cm (in number 300-400 cuttings per kebeles in total of 12000-16000 cuttings) were planted on the contour in respect to 80cm between cuttings and 100cm between rows according to availability of contour structure or watershed areas in addition on Farmers Training Centers.   and English were distributed.

Agronomic and yield performance
The following

Yield advantage
The result indicated that IRLI14983 variety has better yield (58.12 ton/ha) when compared with local check (55.07ton/ha).
Accordingly, the yield advantage of the IRLI14983 variety over the local check was 48.17% under farmer condition Table 5.
Yield advantage of the demonstrated varieties was calculated using the following formula.
Yield advantage % = Yield advantage of new variety -Yield advantage of st; check X 100 Yield advantage of standard check

Farmers' Opinion/perception
Farmers set criteria after having know-how about the variety and by using those criteria they gave ranks for the varieties with reasonable remarks during variety demonstration that were: biomass, survival, adaptability, palatability by livestock, and drought tolerant. As a result, most of the farmers selected IRLI14983 variety to reuse on their farm for the future as depicted in following Table 6.

Discussion
The highest average yield of the IRLI14983 Elephant/ Napier grass were recorded at Dodota 10.62 ton/ha and Wahil 9.61 ton/ha as compare to local varieties across the sites. This indicates that this variety is very adaptable and suit with the existing environmental conditions in these sites. And there was yield difference of the varieties across the research sites due to rainfall, soil type and other climatic conditions. In addition there was yield advantage of IRLI14983 variety over local check that is 48.17% as depicted in Table 5 since there was yield of 3.03 ton/ha in comparison and statistically signifi cance different at p<0.01.
Moreover, farmers evaluated these two varieties (IRLI14983 and local) at different stages based at farm level based on their own criteria: good biomass, good survival, adaptable, good palatability and drought tolerant, accordingly, ranked IRLI14983 variety on fi rst rank as compare to local as shown on Table 6, and even evaluated these criteria by pair-wise ranking, as result, ranked biomass fi rst with the rest as on Table 7. Based on these above result and discussion the following conclusion recommendations were derived.

Conclusion and recommendation
The yield performances of the demonstrated elephant grass varieties across the study sites were 9.32to/ha for (IRLI14983) and 6.29 ton/ha for local variety with 3.03ton/ha yield difference in which IRLI14983 has more yield advantage 48.17% over local