Growth and biomass production of some Leucaena leucocephala accessions grown at Makoka, Malawi

The objective of this study was to compare growth, coppicing, and biomass production of 17 accessions of Leucaena leucocephala widely distributed for planting in East and Southern Africa by National Tree Seed Centres in Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Kenya. A widely used accession in alley cropping in West Africa was also included. The trial was established in 1989 on a sandy loam soil in a sub-humid unimodal rainfall area at Makoka, Malawi. Assessments were done for survival at 3 months and at 15 and 30 months after establishment for height, diameter at the root collar, number of branches and biomass production. Survival was generally good for most accessions (> 90%) with the exception of an accession from Machakos, Kenya (No. 84511) which had a survival of only 67%. Fifteen months after establishment, accessions fromYimbo (Kenya), and two K8 accessions from Kasama (Zambia) and Machakos (Kenya) achieved the best height of over 3.2 m. Poor accessions included accession No. 84511 from Machakos(Kenya), Peru (ex. Makoka, Malawi), and the West African accession from IITA (Nigeria) whose height was less than 2.5 m. At 15 months, 12 of the accessions tested showed high total biomass production (dry wt), 25 - 38 t ha"1. The foliage biomass (leaves, twigs and pods) yields exceeded 10 t ha' in all but one accession from Makoka, Malawi and another from Korogwe, Tanzania. After clear cutting, all the Leucaena accessions coppiced and grew exceptionally well, achieving very high biomass production in only 15 months. The highest yields were produced by accessions from Isiolo, Kenya (47.7 t ha"1); Namiyanga, Malawi (42.2 t ha'1); Yimbo, Kenya (36.3 t ha'1) and accession Pursa from Kasama, Zambia (35.6 t ha'1). Poor accessions yielded less than 201 ha'1 and included local seed sources of Peru and Cunningham from Makoka, Malawi and the West African accession from IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria.