journal of renewable natural resources bhutan - Ministry of Agriculture

Kelzang Wangchuk et alDiscussionThe results of this study represent the nutritional qualities of Ficusauriculata trees within the age of 15 to 17 years in winter and thelocations within elevations of 540 to 1950m asl.There is huge variation in nutritional quality of Ficus auriculatabetween different sites. Rajhan (1977) studied the variation in nutritivevalue of tree leaves and concluded that nutritive value of tree leavesvary with months and season. Thus, a huge variation in nutritivequality between sites can be attributed to the variation in climatic andsoil conditions found at different elevations. This was expectedbecause there are different vegetation zones with different climaticconditions within the elevation range of 200 to 2000m asl. Theseattributes of Ficus auriculata support the finding of Thorne et al.(1999) who indicated that Ficus auriculata populations may haveconsiderable range of nutritional parameters such as CP, NDF andADFoffering scope for improvement through selection.The study results showed that elevation and rainfall are goodpredictors of nutritional quality of ficus auriculata. At higherelevations, leaves have lower fiber content and higher CP contentsuggesting that the nutritive quality of this tree resource is superior athigher elevation. The inferior nutritional quality at lower elevations isindicated by higher fiber and low CPcontent of the leaves.There is wide range of nutritive values of Ficus auriculata reported inthis study while the nutritive values in published information of otherauthors were within a small range. The wide range of nutritive values inthis study is attributable to large variations in nutritional qualitiesamong samples from different sites falling under different agroecologicalzones.CONCLUSIONSFicus auriculata is the most important fodder tree within elevation of200 to 2000m asl. The nutritive values of Ficus auriculata vary withelevations and the amount of annual rainfall and the nutritional qualityin terms of fiber and CP content is superior at higher elevations.However, this study has not covered soil and management factors8