Pre-breeding of elephant grass for energy purposes and biomass analysis in Campos dos Goytacazes- RJ, Brazil

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the morpho-agronomic traits of eighty five accessions of elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum Schum.) from the germplasm bank located at the Experimental Field of the State Center for Research on Bioenergy and Waste Recovery (Centro Estadual de Pesquisa em Agroenergia e Aproveitamento de Resíduos). The experimental design was a randomized block with two replicates, in an annual-harvest system. The evaluated traits were: percentage of dry matter (%DM), dry matter yield (DMY), number of tillers per linear meter (NT), plant height (HGT), stem diameter (SD), leaf blade width (LW) and leaf blade length (LL). Each cut and variable underwent variance analysis and the Scott-Knott test (P<0.05). Tocher's optimization method, Mahalanobis distance and canonic variables were used for the multi-traits, and importance of the characters in the canonic variables. The following elite genotypes were identified by the Scott-Knott test at 5%: Rico 534-B,

Research Article Stability of annual biomass energy production of elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum Schum.) genotypes in the Northern region of the Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil.

“…The coefficient of variation was 31.79%, which is considered acceptable for the DMY variable, since it is a quantitative characteristic whose genetic control involves many genes and thus undergoes a strong influence of the environment (Hallauer et al, 2010). Note that this value is consistent with values normally reported in other studies with culture also under field conditions (Oliveira et al, 2014;Rossi et al, 2014;Rocha et al, 2015).…”

“…Despite many favorable attributes of this crop, research focusing on genetic breeding aimed at its use as an energy source is recent and not very expressive when compared with many of the commodities (Daher et al, 2014). Considering this need, the Elephant Grass Breeding Program of Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro has intensified efforts in the development of studies aimed at obtaining highly productive elephant grass genotypes with appropriate biomass quality for use as energy source, to meet mainly the demand of the ceramic industries from the Northern region of Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil (de Lima et al, 2011;Oliveira et al, 2014;Rossi et al, 2014;Rocha et al, 2015;Menezes et al, 2014Menezes et al, , 2016a. To this end, a better understanding of the genotype versus environment interaction is indispensable for the breeding of this crop (Pereira and Lédo, 2008;Cruz et al, 2012).…”

Dry Matter Yield and Nutritional Characteristics of Elephant-Grass Genotypes

“…Among the elephant-grass accessions evaluated, the significant differences seen concerning DMY, %CP, and %NDF prove the variability among the 53 genotypes evaluated, which enables to select the best genotypes [10][11]. The coefficients of variation of the traits evaluated are between 2.21 and 15,7%, which appears to be suitable for the experimental evaluation.…”

Research Article Prediction of genetic gains by selection indices using mixed models in elephant grass for energy purposes.

“…The program started with morphological and molecular characterization (de Lima et al, 2011;Oliveira et al, 2014) and subsequently with crossing Menezes et al, 2015Menezes et al, , 2016 of genotypes from the elephant grass germplasm bank of the UENF.…”