BACKGROUND Low rainfall is a major limitation to expanding the dairy industry in semi‐arid
environments in East Africa. In such dry areas, plants need to keep their tissues hydrated
and stomata open for carbon exchange and to grow. On this basis, we assessed the
productivity of 10 lines of Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum Schum.), which formed three
yield clusters: low yielding (LYC), moderate yielding (MYC), and high yielding (HYC), in a
wet highland (Muguga) and semi‐arid lowland (Katumani) of Kenya. Stomatal conductance …

Ten accessions of Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum Schumach.) were evaluated for
their dry matter (DM) yield and forage quality in a semi-arid lowland (Katumani) and a
relatively wet highland (Muguga) over seven growth cycles from 2011 to 2013 in tropical
Kenya. Three biomass yield clusters were identified from the 10 accessions as high-yielding
(HYC), medium-yielding (MYC) and low-yielding (LYC) clusters for both sites. Total biomass
(shoot and root) yields (t ha− 1) over the seven growth cycles were 25.3 for HYC, 22.2 for …