cultivars
The study showed that farming was an important economic activity in the semi-arid regions surveyed, suggesting that farmers might be willing to adopt crop enterprises that improves returns from investments on their land. Therefore, dual-purpose sorghums could be a viable option for the farmers. Farmers were found to be of active age between 31 and 60 years which can mean availability of effective labour, however there were fewer adults (about 3) implying that there were labour limitation for a commercial type of agriculture. The fact that some household could hire additional labour is an indication that when economically justified, labour could be hired given high economic returns. The predominance of maize was testimony to the need for food security in the areas and income from the sale of surpluses, which could mean that farmers were able to analyse and decide on the cropping enterprises that satisfied their needs, namely food and household income. Production of cotton in some areas is testimony to that fact. However, the farmers faced problems of access and timely acquisition of inputs, lack of markets for most crops, poor seed quality, inappropriate varieties, moisture limitations, bird damage in sorghum and pearl millet, and poor soil fertility.
The finding that climate was the major determinant of choice of crop suggest that dual- purpose sorghum cultivars might be adopted by the farmers in these areas. Sorghum is one of the most drought tolerant grain cereal and with drought and limited access to market listed among the major constraints, dual-purpose sorghums are better placed as they are expected to have ready market in the biofuel industry. The fact that dual-purpose cultivars provide both food from grain and income from the sale of sweet stalks makes it more ideal for production in the area with limited land holding, the latter was cited as a major constraint by farmers in Chivi. The potential high returns from dual-purpose sorghum can potentially attract the seed industry which can result in the supply of quality seed.
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