Evaluation of Performance of Sorghum Varieties for Growth and Yield Attributes in Turare, Dutsin-Ma, Sudan Savanna, Katsina State Nigeria

Abstract

The success of Sorghum varieties introduced to a location is tightly linked to the uses, environmental condition and farmers’ preferences. Also, grain and stover quality needs special attention to enhance the market value. The farmers in Turare village are predominantly sorghum and millet farmers. They cultivate the same varieties of sorghum which are low yielding land races. Experiments were conducted in 2017 and 2018, nine varieties of sorghum were planted in the Agroforestry farm layout of Federal University Dutsin-Ma with the aim of determining the varieties that are high yielding, early and farmers’ preference varieties so that the varieties that are high yielding and preferred by farmers can be multiplied and distributed to the farmers. Four landraces from the local community and five hybrids from Institute for Agricultural Research, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria were used for the study. Complete Randomized Block Design was used for experimental design and the Sorghum varieties were allocated to plots using Random Table Number. In both years, the farmers (male and female) preferred Samsurg 45 and 46 because of their earliness and high yield. Also, the local varieties, Maibakincona and Yargidanwudu have high performance in both years. CSR01 and CSR02, Zago and Jandawa performed poorly in yield and are late varieties. Though Samsorg 40 had high yield but not as high as Samsorg 45, 46, Maibakincona and Yargidanwudu. The study concludes that Samsorg 45 and 46 have a better attribute of early maturity and yield. Also, the local varieties, Maibakincona and Yargidanwudu have high performance in both years and can be improved upon in terms of yield and earliness. This research was conducted in order to compare the performance of the hybrids varieties with the local varieties that the farmers are used to in the area so as to advise the local farmers to use the varieties with the highest performance. This will relatively translate to higher income for the farmers.