Abstract:
The objective of this study was to study the effect of some climatic parameters
on sorghum production and to explore a wide range of possible sorghum crop
management adaptation strategies that could enhance its production and
contribute to food security. The study was conducted in the Central region of
Burkina Faso in 2014. Three experiments were carried out under three climatic
conditions: two dry experiments were conducted during the hot (March) and the cold (October) seasons respectively, while the rainfed experiment was
conducted early in July. These experiments used a split-plot design. The two
dry season experiments were subjected to two watering regimes (well-watered
and water stress) and the entire experiments were subjected to two nitrogen
levels (0 and 60 kg ha-1 of urea) and two sorghum genotypes (local, Kapelga
and improved, Sariaso 14). These factors were evaluated for genotypic
performance on root growth, reproductive cycle, yield and yield components,
and nitrogen and water use efficiencies. The result showed that the variations
in the climatic parameters decreased the long term sorghum yield in Saria. It
was also observed that the growth conditions mostly affected sorghum
production followed by watering regimes, genotypes performance and
nitrogen levels. The third growth condition (dry cold experiment) was found to
be the most productive. Genotype Sariaso 14 was highly productive in
irrigated experiments. It was also found that WUE and NUE were the two
factors limiting sorghum production. This knowledge is expected to be of
tremendous benefit to fanners as rainfed agriculture is particularly vulnerable
to climate change.
