Effect of sowing techniques on yield and rainfall productivity of pearl millet in gardud soil of north Kordofan state

Abstract

Pearl millet is grown in environments that are drought-prone areas. The climate change is expected to increase vulnerability in all agro-ecological zones through rising temperature and more erratic rainfall, which will have drastic consequences on food security. Pearl millet is the cereal crop that has a great potential for ensuring food security and income generation in marginal areas because of its suitability to the extreme limits of agriculture. This study was carried out at the Jebel Kordofan experimental site, Sheikan province in North Kordofan state during 2010-2012 seasons to evaluate the effect of different sowing techniques on yield and rainfall productivity of local and improved millet cultivars. Treatments were a combination of four sowing techniques and two cultivars of pearl millet. The sowing techniques were: dry sowing, wet sowing, deep dibbling (10-cm depth) and priming with micro-dozing fertilizer. The two cultivars were Ashana (improved) and Dembi (local). These treatments were arranged in a split-plot design, the main plot for cultivars and subplot for sowing methods in four replications. The parameters studied were days to 50% flowering, plant height (cm), grain yield (kg/ha) and rainfall productivity (kg/ha/mm). The cultivars showed highly significant differences in the number of days to 50% flowering, plant height (cm), grain yield (kg/ha) and rainfall productivity (kg/ha/mm). The dry sowing technique significantly (P ? 0.05) produced the tallest plant (149cm), higher water use efficiency (5.10 kg/ha/mm) and the highest grain yield (1637 kg/ha). It can be concluded that the seedbed prepared with a chisel plough and sown on dry soil produced the highest grain yield.