Effect of zaï and micro dose on root biomass and the grain and straw yield so sorghum at Tangaye in the North region in Burkina Faso

Faced with rainfall variation and the poor performance of farming practices, the North region of Burkina Faso often observed cereal deficits. Sorghum, the main staple food crop in this region, provides relatively low yields (1000 kgha-1). Furthermore, in the area, the density of the population is one of the highest in the country. In order to increase sorghum yields, a study has been carried out in the village of Tangaye by combining the water management practice through mechanized and manual zaï techniques with fertilization by microdose of NPK fertilizer. The experimental design of the study was a split-plot with three replications and four treatments set on a crusty bear soil “Zipellé”.The mechanized zaï and the manual zaï have been compared with and without applying mineral NPK fertilizer by a micro dose. The effects of these techniques have been evaluated on the soil and the root system by the method of taking monoliths. The grain and straw yields of sorghum have been evaluated for each treatment. The results showed that the greatest roots system development was obtained on the mechanized zaï plot with the application of micro dose of NPK fertilizer. This treatment also has the highest grain yield (2910 kgha-1) compared to manual Zaï (1620 kgha-1

Participatory variety development for sorghum in Burkina Faso: Farmers’ selection and farmers’ criteria

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is the staple crop of Burkina Faso in West Africa where guinea race landraces are grown in low-input cropping systems. National and international breeding programs have had little success in disseminating modern varieties based on high yield potential caudatum or kafir race breeding materials, mostly introduced from other countries. It has been argued that the breeding objectives were not sufficiently oriented towards the farmers’ needs and preferences, and that they did not target the prevailing growing conditions of Burkina Faso. The objectives of the present article are (i) to identify and examine farmers’ selection criteria for sorghum varieties in the Centre-West of Burkina Faso, (ii) to compare these criteria with the breeder’s agronomic observations and standard practices, and (iii) to show how the criteria of both farmers and breeders can be effectively integrated into the early stages of a pedigree breeding program. These objectives take into consideration gender differentiation, consistency of selection criteria and the interrelationship of measured quantitative traits, as well as the impact of these traits and criteria on the final selection. The present paper is based on a pedigree breeding program that was carried out over three years (2001–2003) in two villages of Burkina Faso. Options for integrating farmers’ selection expertise with that of the breeders’ were examined. Participatory selection was initiated with 53 F3/F4 progenies in field trials managed by farmers using rating and voting exercises. The breeders measured and analysed the agronomic data while the farmers evaluated a large number of progenies by means of their three most important selection criteria and a general appreciation. Farmers’ initial choices remained consistent in the selection exercises (voting) performed in subsequent years. The farmers’ methods for defining traits turned out to be more multivariate than the breeders’ formal understanding of these same traits. This was especially so for the criteria of grain quality, earliness, and productivity for which the farmers’ definition encompasses factors such as flour yield and stability across environments. However, rating results between farmer groups were variable. A disagreement between female and male ratings was especially found for the grain quality traits. The results clearly show that farmers can effectively select for traits on the basis of progeny and single plants while pursuing specific agronomic aims such as adaption. Subsequent yield improvement schemes will thus be more efficient in terms of selection intensity related to grain yield. The study is showing the way for breeders to adjust their selection criteria to suit the basic needs of small-scale farmer in semi-arid regions of sub-Saharan Africa

Helping farmers adapt to climate and cropping system change through increased access to sorghum genetic resources adapted to prevalent sorghum cropping systems in Burkina Faso

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is a major staple crop of Burkina Faso where farmers continue to cultivate photoperiod-sensitive guinea landraces as part of the strategy to minimize risk and ensure yield stability. In the Boucle du Mouhoun region, however, sorghum farmers appear to have insufficient varietal choice due to cropping systems having shifted towards more intensive cultivation of cotton and maize, and rainfall patterns having decreased over the past decade. In search for new varietal options that can respond to this changing context, researchers decided to give farmers access to ex-situ national collections along with the opportunity to evaluate recent improved varieties. From 2002 to 2007, researchers and farmers worked closely together to implement on-farm testing, including varietal selection trials, crop management and multi-locational trials. Farmers’ choices tend to differ among groups, villages and years, with the exception of four particular landraces: two originating from a collection carried out in the Mouhoun region more than 30 years previous to this research, and two other landraces that came from the dissimilar agro-ecological zones of Burkina Faso. These four were the most commonly selected landraces out of 36 cultivars that covered both improved and landrace varieties. Farmers’ selection criteria were focused on adaptation to agro-climatic conditions as well as specific grain qualities for processing and consumption. The potential usefulness of each variety was verified via multi-locational trials. The paper also shows that wide dissemination of experimental seed, not just across the Mouhoun region but also at a national scale, was largely achieved through collaboration with a strong farmer organisation in conjunction with farmer training programs focused on the on-farm seed production and the commercialisation of this seed

Crop ontology: integration of standard variables

The Crop Ontology (CO, http://www.cropontology.org/) is a resource of the Integrated Breeding Platform (IBP, http://integratedbreeding.net/) providing breeders with crop specific terms for fieldbook edition and data annotation. Until Mai 2015, a plant phenotype was annotated with 3 CO identifiers for the trait, the method and the scale, respectively. Yet, breeders’ fieldbook and most phenotypic databases are designed to annotate a datapoint with only one identifier. To meet the need of providing one single identifier to an observation variable, the CO and IBP teams have worked on integrating the notion of variable into the CO. This has led to a thorough revision of the structure of the Trait Dictionary (TD) template. The TD template is a user-friendly xls file that is used to submit terms to CO which are then stored in the IBP Breeding Management System and other information systems (NextGen, Agtrials…). The most notable changes to the TD template are the addition of the term type “variable” and the decomposition of a trait into an entity and an attribute so as to formalize the trait definition and to foster the mapping with external ontologies (TO, PO, PATO, CHEBI, EO, PDO, GO…). Guidelines document how to post-compose variables. Along with the partners, the CO and IBP team have been working on formatting and curating the TD of pigeonpea (ICRISAT), cowpea (IITA), wheat (CIMMYT), groundnut (ICRISAT/USDA), yam (IITA), chickpea (ICRISAT), lentil (ICARDA), cassava (IITA), soybean (IITA/USDA), common bean (CIAT), rice (IRRI), pearl millet (ICRISAT), sorghum (CIRAD/ICRISAT), and maize (CIMMYT)

Genetic diversity assessment in sorghum accessions using qualitative morphological and amplified fragment length polymorphism markers

Qualitative morphological and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers were compared for assessment of genetic diversity. Nine qualitative morphological traits were recorded to compare genetic relationships among 17 sorghum accessions with information derived from six AFLP primer combinations analysis. The mean morphological genetic similarity was lower in comparison to similarity computed using AFLP markers. Genetic similarity measured by AFLP markers was similar within the Ethiopian and South African material, as well as between South African and Ethiopian material. Morphological similarity was much higher in the Ethiopian material than in the South African material, indicating that the genotypes were related. The two techniques described genetic variability in different ways. Dendrogram generated from the morphological data matrix separated accession 216737 as being genetically distinct from the rest of the accessions. Accessions M101 and 97MW6127 were the most dissimilar accessions based on AFLP data