Salicornia sinus-persica: a high-yielding species for fodder production with seawater

Abstract

A replicated field experiment was conducted to evaluate the growth, biomass yield, and quality of Salicornia sinus-persica Akhani compared to the Salicornia bigelovii Torr. Both species were planted in saline soils irrigated with seawater (60 dS/m) from the Persian Gulf. Results showed that under the experiment conditions, the biomass yield of S. sinus-persica was 1.8 times more than S. bigelovii. The plant height of S. sinus-persica was also higher by 27% than S. bigelovii. While the ash content was lower by 15% in S. bigelovii, the protein content did not differ significantly between the two species. In contrast, the neutral detergent fiber in S. sinus-persica biomass was significantly lower than in S. bigelovii. Likewise, the dry-matter intake, relative feed value, and forage quality of S. bigelovii were lower by 20%, 21%, and 30%, respectively, when compared to S. sinus-persica. Despite higher ash content in S. sinus-persica than in S. bigelovii, S. sinus-persica could be used as a high-yielding species for alternate forage production under seawater irrigation in coastal lands of arid and semi-arid regions.

Keywords:

• Acid detergent
• neutral detergent fiber
• ash
• protein
• forage quality
• saline irrigation

Acknowledgments

The research was accomplished under a collaborative project (no: 180/44/3010) between Iranian National Salinity Research Center and College and Research Center of Technical and Engineering. Thanks to Sherman Bradford for the final editing of the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).