Growth Performance of <i>Moringa oleifera</i> and <i>Moringa ovalifolia</i> in Central Namibia Semi-Arid Rangeland Environment

Abstract

The objective of this study was to compare the field growth performance of <i>Moringa oleifera </i> and <i> Moringa ovalifolia </i> in semi-arid environment of central Namibia rangeland. This part of Namibia has both arid and semi-arid climates. These climates require the growing of drought-resistant fodder trees to aid in the provision of animal feed or supplement. This is paramount to livestock farmers who are striving to meet the feed demand of their animals especially during winter and drought periods. It is upon this background that both <i> Moringa </i> species were grown to evaluate their field growth performances. <i> Moringa oleifera </i> grew faster with 224.9 cm and 281.45 cm heights than <i> Moringa ovalifolia </i> that had 77.025 cm and 113.2 cm heights in 2014/2015 summer season (October 2014 to April 2015) and 2015/2016 summer season (October 2015 to April 2016), respectively, although <i> Moringa ovalifolia </i> is native to Namibia. In Namibia, summer usually starts October and ends April the follow year after which winter follows. <i> Moringa oleifera </i> grew significantly higher (P < 0.05) in heights compared to <i> Moringa ovalifolia </i> , though they belong to the Moringaceae family and were grown under the parallel conditions. Therefore, <i> Moringa oleifera </i> would serve as a better alternative for improving rangelands’ productivity under these adverse climatic and environmental conditions since it can grow faster than <i> Moringa ovalifolia </i> , whose characteristic leads to the rapid establishment of trees and large quantity of leaf-biomass production.