Common names: Giant grass, Elephant grass, Merker grass, Napier grass, Napier, Uganda grass, Bana grass, Barner grass
Scientific Name: Pennisetum purpureum
Feed categories: Green roughages-cultivated fodder
Production / Availability:
Napier grass is a perennial C4 grass species native to around the world and monocotyledonous flowering plant and possesses a number of attributes including; high biomass yields, rapid re-growth potential and ease of propagation. Napier grass commonly distributed and propagates by vegetative (stem) cuttings and tillers. Napier grass cultivation has recently acquired a great popularity in Bangladesh as livestock fodder. The fodder is cultivating from March to end of October in Bangladesh. Napier grass requires warm and moist climate, clay to clay loam soil for good growth. The first cut is ready after 65-70 days of plantation and thereafter every 45-50 days. Napier grass has a fabulous yield, but the yield depends on the height of the plant at which it is harvested. Napier grass is mainly used in cut-and-carry systems (“zero grazing”) and fed in stalls, or made into silage.
Napier grass forms dense thick clumps, up to 1 m across. The leaves are flat, linear, hairy at the base, up to 100-120 cm long and 1-5 cm wide, with a bluish-green colour. The leaf margin is finely toothed and the leaf blade has a prominent midrib.