Harvesting seasonal green fodder like maize, barley & millet has become economically very challenging to the farmers due to the rising input cost.

Hybrid napier or Super napier as it popularly known is a solution to this problem. It’s a perennial grass which once sown gives a very good yield round the year for 2 – 3 years. It’s a hybrid between napier grass & pearl millet. It’s flood & drought proof.

In the below video, we are going to show you the step by step process to cultivate super napier.

First we till the field using a tractor to lossen the soil. We leave the field untouched for couple of days so that the uprooted weeds may get decomposed on their own.

Then we clean the field by removing all these weeds in addition to any stones etc.

At this stage, if you are sowing this grass in a season other than rainy & soil is dry then you must water the field so that the soil becomes moist.

Next we put cow manure all across the field. 
This way the field becomes ready for a new crop to be sown.

Super napier can be sown either through the root slips or the stem cuttings.

In this video we are going to show you the plantation using root slips.

We first collect the root slips from our nursery.

Then we make furrows in the field; 2-3 feets apart. We place these root slips in the furrows & cover the roots of these root slips with soil.

After 2 – 3 weeks, once napier is between 12 – 18 inches in height, we trim the napier blades so as to strengthen the core & the roots.

Once trimmed, napier starts flourshing again & in 4 – 6 weeks it becomes ready for harvesting.

Since it’s a perennial grass, if it gets sufficient water & fertilizer, it’ll provide you good yield for 2 – 3 years with harvesting cycles of 1 to 1.5 months.