The Dry Matter Yield and Nutritive Value of Wet Tolerant Tropical Forage Legumes in Single Cropping or Mixed Cropping with Gramineous Forage Crops in Drained Paddy Field
In Japan the production of rice has been controlled since the 1970\u27s and some parts of the paddy fields have been laid off for forage production. However, in poorly-drained fields or fields with high ground water table, forage species with high tolerance of wet conditions are required. The tropical forage legumes Aeschynomene americana cv. Glenn (Glenn) and Macroptilium lathyroides (L.) Urb. cv. Murray (phasey bean) have a high wet endurance (Bishop et al., 1985; Tobisa et al., 1999) and show high dry matter productivity (Skerman et al., 1988; Tobisa et al., 1999). The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the dry matter yield and nutritive value of Glenn and phasey bean in single cropping or mixed cropping with gramineous forage crops in drained paddy fields