Assessment of Photoperiod Sensitivity and the Effect of Sowing Date on Dry-Season Sorghum Cultivars in Southern Chad

Abstract

The cultivation of dry-season sorghum on residual moisture in West and Central Africa is highly affected by sowing dates and ecotypes used. Fifty-five dry-season sorghum ecotypes collected from three zones in southern Chadian were sown on two dates, early and late, in 2013 and 2014, in an α-Lattice, and replicated five times to evaluate the effect of sowing date on potential yield, flowering time, and other agro-morphological traits and to determine their photoperiod sensitivity. Trials were conducted in the research fields at the Agricultural Research Extension Farm in Youé, Chad. Year, sowing date, and their interaction significantly affected most of the assessed traits. Delaying sowing significantly decreased potential yield, duration of vegetative phase, and other agro-morphological traits, except staygreen. All cultivars were photoperiodic with late sowing requiring a lower cumulative growing degree unit to flower. The flowering window was not affected by sowing dates across cultivars; however, the flowering time was affected by a decrease in daylength, but not low night temperatures. Generally, late sowing decreased potential yield across cultivars. However, this decrease varied with the region of origin, with seven cultivars having average potential yields at or above the regional potential yield of 1 t/ha, irrespective of year or sowing dates.

Assessment of global sorghum production, tolerance, and climate risk

“…A large body of literature found important differences between sorghum varieties in terms of yield, nutritional content, and tolerance to climate risks (Amare et al, 2015;Ogbaga et al, 2016;Assefa et al, 2020;Tasie and Gebreyes, 2020;Wendmu et al, 2022). Similarly, agronomic practices such as tillage, plant density, and sowing date, among others, are found to widely impact sorghum yield (Conley and Wiebold, 2003;Ajaj et al, 2021;Carcedo et al, 2021;Zander et al, 2021;Gao et al, 2022;Naoura et al, 2023), indicating that adopting best agronomic practices is an indispensable factor for any program that aims to improve crop productivity and build climate resilience.…”