Having considered our research strategy we can now formulate an objective for the whole study, namely:
To identify Napier grass accessions from the ILRI Forage Gene Bank suitable for growth under different environmental and climatic conditions.
Each study will, of course, have its own separate objective, namely:
Study A Compare the agronomic and morphological characteristics of 53 accessions of Napier grass from the ILRI Forage Gene Bank. Use multivariate methods to describe groups of accessions and select a subset of genotypes for further evaluation.
Study B1 Compare a selection of Napier grass accessions for yield and acceptability in 10 different locations covering a range of environmental and climatic conditions in East and southern Africa.
Study B2 Study variation in morphological and agronomic traits of 56 accessions grown at two locations and determine evidence for genotype x environment interactions.
Study C Having determined a shortlist of 'best bet' Napier grass accessions from the previous three studies that are likely to be found favour with farmers, compare growth rates of sheep fed the different accessions
