CHANNAKESHAVA, B.C.ARVIND, KUMAR2018-04-092018-04-092017-04-24Th-11616http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810043036Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) is popularly known as lucerne and rightly called as “Queen of Forage”. It has been cultivated under wide range of climatic and soil conditions throughout the world. In Karnataka it is popularly called as Kudre masale or Kudare menthe. Alfalfa is cultivated over an area of 22 million hectares in the world with an average green fodder yield of 50 - 125 t ha-1 year-1 with 8 - 12 cutting frequencies and seed yield ranging from 300 - 800 kg ha-1 (Asaadi et al., 2014). In addition, the crop also fixes 83 - 594 kg ha-1 of atmospheric nitrogen through root nodules. In India, it occupies an area of one million hectares and provides 60 to 130 t ha-1 of green forage. It is a major crop in Gujarat, Western districts of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab. After sorghum and berseem, alfalfa is the third important forage crop in India (Pandey and Roy, 2011). In Karnataka it occupies an area of 3121.23 ha which accounts for 0.03 % of net cropped area (Elumalai Kannan, 2012).ennullThesis