Influence of Cassia m imosoides L. (Fabaceae) Density on Millet Yield [ Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br. (Poaceae)] in Eastern South East Niger

Abstract

Large scale cereal farming faces many problems in the West African Sahel. One of the constraints to large-scale cereal production is competition from weeds. The problem of controlling weeds in millet fields is an obstacle to increasing the area sown. In addition to that, there is a scarcity of studies that looked at the impacts of ruderal weed such as legume ruderal weed on the yield of cereal like pearl millet which is of staple food in Niger. The present study, carried out in the Department of Illéla, located in the east-southeast of Niger, aims to determine the density of Cassia mimosoides that can influence millet production. Our experimental design was a randomized Fisher block with four replications. Each block comprises a control and five treatments. Our study focused on measuring certain production parameters, namely millet plant height and yield of millet plants. The tolerant density can be estimated at four Cassia mimosoides plants per square meter. A one factor analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the production obtained according to the type of treatment at P ≤ 0.05. Beyond this critical value, the weed starts to interfere with the millet from the fifth week onwards (period of interference). The results showed the sensitivity of seedlings under the influence of Cassia mimosoides plants. The best yields were obtained in the control plots (2375 Kg/ha). Millet grain yield decreased with increasing Cassia mimosoides density. Plots with low Cassia mimosoides densities produced more millet (plots with 2 plants/m 2 of Cassia mimosoides : T1 = 1500 Kg/ha at P ≤ 0.05) than those with high densities (plots with 20 plants/m 2 of Cassia mimosoides : T10 = 168.75 Kg/ha at P ≤ 0.05). The difference in the average yield of pearl millet between the control and the treatment T1 is 875 kg/ha and that of the control and treatment T10 is 2206.25 kg/ha. The results showed that the cycle of reproduction of the local variety “Guèreguera” is 98 days (from July 12, 2023 to October 25, 2023). These findings of this study complete the efforts of developing weed control techniques in pearl millet fields densely populated with Cassia mimosoides .