Study design/Study B1

The altitudes covered by the sites range from 66m above sea level at Tang (L5) to 2400 m above sea level at Holetta (L8). The annual rainfall at the sites ranges from 900 mm at Morogoro (L2) to 1900 mm at Kakamega (L5) all in a bimodal pattern except at Bunda which has a unimodal pattern. Frosts occur at Bunda (L6) and Holetta at some nights during the dry season.

The methodology for the agronomic evaluation was standardised across sites. The accessions/hybrids were planted in randomised complete block designs at an inter-row spacing of 0.75m and within row spacing of 0.40m. Each accession was planted on lines 6m long and the harvesting was to be done on the middle 2m length when the plants had reached 1.5m height or at the end of the first growing season.

The data that were collected included rainfall, date of planting, days to flowering, plant height at intervals of 20 days, dry matter yield, crude protein, NDF content, leaf:stem ratio and number of tillers per plant at harvesting.