THE EFFECT OF THINNING ON THE YIELD OF THREE NERICA VARIETIES (NERICA 4, NERICA 6 AND NERICA 7)

Famara Jaiteh

National Agricultural Research Institute

PMB 526, Serrekunda, The Gambia

ABSTRACT

The effect of thinning on the yield of three NERICA varieties (N4, N6 andN7 )was investigated in site three  at Banjulinding farm West Coast Region  during the rainy season  2011.A split-plot design with three replicates has three main plots divided into six sub-plots for the thinning and non-thinning of each varieties .

The results from the trial indicated that there was significant different in some yield related components like plant heights and culm length but there was no significant different in yield per hectare between varieties .NERICA 4 yield highest in thinning method than any other varieties, whiles NERICA 7 showed the highest yield in the non-thinning method .Generally all the three NERRICAs yield more in the non-thinning method than in the case of thinning.

Key words: Thinning, Hectare, Split-plot design, Varieties, yield