Page 20 - La Agroforestería frente a la Agenda 2030 para el Desarrollo Sostenible

Dry matter production and

nutritive value of three varieties

of Panicum maximum grass

under mixed species native tree

plantations

in Panama

Panama’s Azuero Peninsula experiences an extended most biomass with 6604, 5993, and 5015 kg dry matter/
dry season that routinely subjects cattle to stress that ha for Massai, Mombasa and Tanzania, respectively. Open
can result in substantial losses, including death of the areas yielded 32% and 52% more forage than in moderate
animal. Silvopasture, an agroforestry practice combining and dense shade, respectively. Nutritive value, however,
forages, livestock, and trees managed on the same improved in the shade, exhibiting the highest crude
unit of land has been shown to mitigate the effects of protein values (9.5% compared to 8% and 6.7%), lowest
environmental stress in livestock, however, few ranchers Acid Detergent Fiber (ADF), and higher macronutrient
in Panama incorporate trees into pastures for long-held (Ca, Mg, K) values in the intermediate shade treatment,
beliefs that trees and grass do not mix. We examined indicating overall higher quality forage. On average,
dry matter production and nutritive content of three Tanzania had the highest crude protein (9.18%) and
Ryan H. Dibala *, Shibu Jose 2 improved varieties of the perennial grass P. maximum lowest ADF (47.03%) values, followed by Mombasa, then
1

1, 2 University of Missouri (Tanzania, Mombasa, and Massai) under full shade, Massai. Both grass moisture and volumetric soil moisture
intermediate shade, and no shade near Playa Venao, Los values increased along the shade gradient, possibly due to
*e-mail: [email protected] Santos, Panama. Tree stocking density was 15.69, 8.43, decreased grass evaporative demand in the understory.
and 0 m /ha, respectively, removing approximately 50% Grasses in both shade treatments also remained green
2
Key-words: Agroforestry; forage; shade; of the basal area in the intermediate shade treatment. 12 days longer into the dry season than those in the
silvopasture; yield.
Mean radiation transmission values, estimated with the open. Results show that forage production is greatest in
Sponsoring institutions: Borlaug Global Food use of hemispherical photography and gap light analysis open environments, but nutritive content and longevity
Security Fellowship. software were 33.55, 59.11, and 99.53%, respectively. is maximized in moderate shade. How this translates to
Dry matter grass production was inversely proportional animal performance has yet to be determined for this
to tree density, with open environments producing the region and warrants further research.