CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
7. Participatory variety selection of sorghum hybrids using farmers' preferences and
7.5. Conclusion
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important trait and defined it as the ability of the plants to complete the growing stage up to flowering stage before the rainy season stops so that the grain filing period will not be compromised (Vom Brocke et al., 2010). The white grain colour was mentioned as an important trait as most of the farmers mix sorghum flour with maize flour to cook their staple food, a thick porridge. This characteristic might be an important key for future breeding strategies for farmers’ preferences where it should be used as one of the traits for selection.
Plant height and head size were also important criteria for some of the farmers and it is associated positively with good grain yield. The reasons for selecting plant height were mostly related to the use of the stems for building houses or granaries. The other traits preferred by farmers were post-harvest traits in combination with high yield and variety stability for the short and long rainy season (Lacy et al., 2006). On the other hand, farmers mentioned the importance of having drought tolerant varieties, although the study did not select for drought tolerance among the hybrids due to high amounts of rain during the growing season. Drought resistant crops are essential for food security (Vunyingah and Kaya, 2016).
Farmers, in general, preferred high yielding hybrids combined with other characteristics essential for their environment. Additionally, seed for the improved varieties such as hybrids should be easily accessible and markets for the grain should be available.
7.4.3. Implications for breeding
Farmers’ selections were based on the production constraints in each environment and this resulted in a variety that combined high grain yield, early maturity, large grain size, tall plant height and drought tolerance. This implies that breeders should pay attention to these traits and other traits that confer drought tolerance such as stay green if the varieties have to be adopted. From this study, two groups of varieties should be deployed; one that responds to high yield and early maturity, and the other to high yield with tall plants. The reason is that normally accumulation of plant biomass takes long, thus varieties will not fit in the short and early maturing group. In addition, farmers usually recycle seed, and this might result in yield reduction in a hybrid. Therefore, farmer education on sorghum hybrids is essential.
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was 1.0 t.ha-1 while the highest yielding hybrid had 3.0 t.ha-1 (TX 631A x MZ 37R). Out of the 25 farmers; the female farmers ranked the hybrid TX 631A x MZ 37R as the best in terms of grain yield, early maturity, less bird damage and white grain colour. Some morphological traits selected based on farmers’ preferences were the same selected based on field performance, such as yield, earliness, grain colour. These were followed by ICSA 19A x SDS 6013R in terms of plant height and white grain colour. The male farmers chose hybrid ICSA 19A x SDS 6013R based on plant height and sweetness of the stem. These results showed the potential of the hybrids over the local variety with a yield advantage ranging from 150% to 200% above the local variety. Thus, the study supports the importance of interactive and involvement of farmers throughout the development of varieties for large scale adoption. Involving farmers in the evaluation and selection of hybrids showed that breeders should not only target yield but other traits important to farmers such as earliness, grain size, grain colour and plant height.
Drought tolerance and head size were also mentioned as important traits used to compare new varieties with the local variety.
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