Enhancing sorghum yield through demonstration of improved sorghum varieties in Tanqua-Abergelle Wereda, Central Zone of Tigray, Ethiopia

With the aim of improving food security through enhanced production and productivity of sorghum a demonstration of two improved sorghum varieties (Chare and Melkam) was conducted in two selected Kebelle (Shekha-Tekhli and Agbe) of Tanqua-Abergelle Wereda. A total of 100 farming households (88 male and 12 female) who are beneficiaries of the Productive Safety Net Program were purposively selected. Each farmer planted the improved varieties along with the local known as Merawi. A total of 2.5 quintals of seeds of both varieties was distributed to cover about 25 ha of land. The average grain yield obtained from the improved sorghum varieties (Chare, Melkam) and local sorghum variety (Merawi) was 47.6, 39.9 and 32.2 qt/ha, respectively. This indicated that the two improved varieties were about 47.8 and 23.9% more productive than the local variety in the same order. This will have significant contribution to the efforts towards ensuring food security and improving the livelihoods of poor farmers. In terms of monetary value, the beneficiary farmers would be able to generate an average gross income of 32,459.50, 27,681.00 and 22,305.50 Birr/ha from Chare, Melkam and local cultivar, respectively. Moreover, the improved verities were found to be early maturing and can best adapt to moisture stressed areas. Therefore, it is recommended that the office of agriculture and rural development of the wereda  to further scale up the varieties to other areas to benefit quite significant number of farmers. Key words: Farmer’ perception, sorghum, improved varieties, demonstration, Tigray, Ethiopia.