Response of Sorghum Varieties to Organic and Inorganic Fertilizer Strategies in Sudan Savanna of Nigeria:Productivity, Nitrogen, and Water Use Efficiencies

Experiments were conducted to evaluate the response of different sorghum varieties to micro-dosing fertilization strategies on yield and yield traits, as well as the impact on nitrogen fertilizer and water use efficiency (NUE and WUE). In addition, the benefit-cost ratio of sorghum cultivation under different fertilization strategies in the Sudan savanna zone of Nigeria was analyzed. The experiment included eight fertilizer micro-application strategies as well as two control and three sorghum varieties. Our results showed that most agronomic indicators differed significantly between years, varieties, and fertilization strategies. However, the application of 100g hill-1 poultry manure plus 3g NPK hill-1 resulted in the highest average grain yield > 2000 kg ha-1 at both study sites (BUK and Minjibir). This means that the grain yield is 86% and 132% higher than the average grain yield with zero fertilization. There were extremely significant differences between NUE and WUE fertilization strategies and varieties at the two sites. At BUK and Minjibir, NPK applied with 3 g of hill-1 had the highest NUE with an average of 37.6 and 40 kg grain/kg N. Application of 100 g of poultry manure plus 3g of NPK hill-1 resulted in the highest average WUE of 6.1 and 5.6 kg grain/mm for BUK and Minjibir, respectively. BUK (3.2) and Minjibir (3.6) had the highest net income and benefit-to-cost ratios when applying 3 grams of NPK per hill. The adoption of micro-dosing fertilization strategies by smallholder farmers provides a good opportunity to prevent long-term soil fertility limitations and thereby increase sorghum productivity and farmer incomes by recommending multiple-choice fertilization strategies for improved sorghum varieties

Increasing the productivity of sorghum farmers in Sudan Savannah of Nigerian: Effect of Access to improved technology and market

Sorghum has assumed greater importance in the economies of several African countries especially with the renewed interest by processors who are interested in using the grain to compliment/substitute wheat and barley in the confectionery and malting industries. Low on-farm grain yields are attributed to low use of inputs including seeds and fertilizers as well as good agronomic practices. ICRISAT Nigeria, in collaboration with several partners under the Agricultural Transformation Support Project (ATASP-1) implemented several activities including thematic training, on-farm technology demonstrations, community seed production and formation of innovation platforms (IPs) for market linkages. Remarkable progress were made in enhancing access to quality seeds and other inputs to over 40,000 farmers while expanding knowledge of Improved technologies to over 100 communities. During the 2016 cropping season, farmers produced over 70,268 Mt of grains valued at N9.135billion (US$29M). The impacts of trainings resulted in about 60% improvement in the understanding of good agronomic practices and post-harvest handling by the farmers and extension agents. The use of improved technologies increased grain yields by 30 to 64% (improved varieties), 27 to 38% (seed dressing), and 20% to 55% (tillage practices). Through IPs and market linkages to large scale processors, 109.76 tons of seeds were procured, distributed and planted. Average yield obtained from improved technologies was 1.5 t/ha compared to 1.1 t/ha by other farmers giving a 40% increase. A total of 1,093 women farmers comprising of about 34.2% of the total number of participating farmers benefited directly from the project. Seed fairs, radios and audio-visual broadcasts on improved production technologies and market availability were used to reach non-participating farmers within the zones. The combination of methods stimulated adoption of improved sorghum production technologies and market linkages proofed effective in achieving both increased sorghum yields and household income

Impact of Climate Change on Cereals Genetic Resources Conservation for Food and Agriculture:Promoting Sustainable Conservation and Utilization of Genetic Resources for Food Security in Nigeria

Genetic resources for food and agriculture play a crucial role in food security, nutrition and livelihoods and in the provision of environmental services (FAO, 2013). They are key components of sustainability, resilience and adaptability in production systems. These resources provide basic material for selection and improvement through breeding to ensure food security needs of the world’s rapidly rising population (Bansode et al., 2015). Plant genetic resources (PGR) represent the diverse gene pools including landraces, primitive cultivars, varieties of traditional agriculture, wild and weedy relatives of crop plants, etc (IPGRI, 1993). These resources have gained more importance in food security, but are under major threats. Increase in the level of non-natural greenhouse gases which are elements of climate change leads to a rise in earth’s temperature, resulting to consequences that include melting of glaciers; more precipitation; extreme weather events and the shifting of seasons. Climate change is one of the major threats to agricultural biodiversity, increasing genetic erosion of landraces and threatening wild species, including crop wild relatives (Jarvis et al., 2008). Losses of plant genetic resources due to climate change and bio-terrorism has resulted in major concerns about future food and nutrition security and, the valuable gene pool is being lost day-by-day due to other threats such as narrow genetic base resulting from directional selection, deforestation, industrialization, biotic or abiotic stresses (Bansode et al., 2015). Climate change has cause shifts in the distribution of land areas suitable for the cultivation of a wide range of crops, with a general trend towards the loss of cropping areas in sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean, India and other continents of the world including Europe. The increased rate of global population and income growth combined with climate change, threatens food security everywhere. Higher temperature and changes in precipitation patterns eventually reduce yields of desirable crops while encouraging weed and pest infestation (Frumhoff et al., 2007; Wolfe et al., 2008)

Exploring Niches of Medium-Season Grain Sorghums in Dryland Areas of Nigeria - Coping Strategies with Impacts of Climate Variability

Climate variability constitutes a major risk to agricultural production in West Africa drylands posing challenges to the livelihood of smallholder farmers. Sorghum crop, which displays a great diversity in growth, development and resource use efficiency has the potential to improve productivity of resilient farming system. However, to better understand plant growth and development in response to the environment there is need for applicable models for Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM) framework (Keating et al., 2003; Holzworth et al., 2014). The application of well-calibrated crop growth models, could help to estimate their production potential in different sites and soil conditions, as well as the impact of different management interventions (Akinseye et al.,2017). This would further allow us to better assess the interaction of phenology with patterns of water use and WUE, a great interest to develop crop adaptation strategies in terms of combating climate variability