Napier grass (Cenchrus purpureus (Schumach.) Morrone syn. Pennisetum purpureum Schumach.), is one of the most important tropical forage grasses suited for cut-and-carry livestock feed systems. It is native to Sub-Saharan Africa and widely distributed and grown across tropical and sub-tropical parts of the world. A field drought stress study was conducted between 2018-2020 and examined the performances of 84 Napier grass genotypes collection from ILRI and EMBRAPA. The studied genotypes were evaluated for agro-morpho, and feed quality traits under moderate water stress (MWS) and severe water stress (SWS) conditions in the dry season, as well as under rainfed conditions in the wet season.

The evaluation of biomass productivity of genotypes revealed highly productive genotypes under wet and dry season conditions. These highly productive Napier genotypes also produced the highest crude protein (CP) yield, which suggested that annual biomass production coupled with annual feed quality such as CP yield are important traits as far as forage value is concerned. Based on the observed significant and consistent high biomass production and CP yield over multiple harvests, the top performing 13 genotypes are selected as promising candidates ‘best-bets’. These best bets can be used as potential candidates for multilocational performance evaluation for rainfed and moderate drought stress conditions in tropical environments.