Title:

Comparative study of M. oleifera and M. ovalifolia survival rates in Central Namibia

Publication Year:
2017
Abstract:

The objective of this study was to compare the survival rates of Moringa oleifera and Moringa ovalifolia grown at the Neudamm Experimental Farm of the University of Namibia in the Central Namibia rangeland. This part of Namibia being arid and semi-arid, the growing of drought resistant fodder trees to aid in the provision of animal fodder or supplement is essential and paramount to livestock farmers. Many trees including Moringa species go into dormancy during winter season. After winter, survived plants sprout while others die off permanently due to severe winter cold. It is upon this background that both Moringa species were grown to evaluate their survival rates for three winter seasons. All trees were counted after each winter season for the first four months and recorded the number of survived and dead trees. These fodder plants may be used to boost the animal production sector of Namibia if they are proven to withstand the harsh environmental conditions, namely, very cold winter and constant drought. The results revealed that M. oleifera and M. ovalifolia survived at different rates though they are from the same Moringaceae family and were grown under the same conditions. On average, M. oleifera had 107 total survived trees, which is equivalent a total survival rate of 89.19%; while, M. ovalifolia had 38 total survived trees with a total survival rate of 87.98% for the three winter (2014, 2015 and 2016) seasons. Statistically, there was no significant difference (P > 0.05) between M. oleifera and M. ovalifolia total survival trees after the 2014 and 2016 winter seasons; however, there was significant difference (P < 0.05) between the two species survived trees after the 2015 winter season. Hence, M. oleifera is proven to have higher survival rate under these adverse climatic and environmental conditions compare to M. ovalifolia despite the latter being a native of Namibia. Keywords: Arid, Moringa oleifer, Moringa ovalifolia, Semi-arid, Survival rate, Winter season.

Publication Title:

Journal of Plant Science: Current Research

Volume:
1
Item Type:
Journal Article
Language:
en

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