Record Details

CIMMYT Institutional Multimedia Publications Repository

View Archive Info
 

Metadata

 
Field Value
 
Title On-farm evaluation of short-season sorghum and fertilizer for smallholder farmers in a semi-arid region of Zimbabwe
 
Names Chiduza, C.
Waddington, S.R.
Rukuni, M.
Date Issued 1992 (iso8601)
Abstract Three on-farm experiments were conducted during 1984-85, 1985-87 in Siabuwa, Zimbabwe to test 1) earlier maturing food sorghums with pearly white grain and 2) fertilizer application as possible solutions to production problems farmers growing sorghum. Replacement of current long-season sorghums by improvement short-season white grain open pollinated varieties, such as SV-2 and 321CR, consistently increased grain yield (by an average of 62%) in the three seasons at farmers' levels of inputs and management. Farmer evaluation of the taste of porridge from sorghum grain showed a high preference for the pearly white short-season varieties compared to the long-season local, Balala. Fertilizer (50 kg N ha1, 12 kg P ha1) significantly raised the grain yield of the long-season local sorghum and shorter season varieties on vertisols, siallitic clays, and sandy loam soils in average and above average rainfall years (1984-85 by 37% and 1985-86 by 60%) but not in 1986-87, a very dry year. Use of fertilizer was not economic in any of the seasons. Pearly white grain, short-season food sorghums are useful additions to the portfolio of sorghum varieties available to farmers in Siabuwa. These varieties should help increase the productivity of the important sorghum enterprise without requiring any major modification of current production practices and without the use of fertilizer in the short term.
Genre Article
Access Condition Open Access
Identifier 0187-828X