Plant more sorghum, less maize
Staff Writer
The Ministry of Agriculture has advised arable farmers to plant more sorghum because it can withstand prolonged moisture stress and high temperatures better than maize.
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The ministry through its Department of Crop Production has said that maize is highly sensitive to moisture stress and excessive temperatures, hence farmers should opt for sorghum. The department said in a press release that farmers should plant varieties of sorghum and legumes that mature between 60-90 days. It said flowering and grain filling stages of a crop are highly sensitive to moisture stress. The department said a plant population of between 19,000 to 28,000 per hectare will give optimum yields of about three metric tones per hectare under rain-fed conditions. The recommended plant population can only be obtained in one row planting because broadcasting is all guess work that might interfere with spacing. Broadcasting the seeds leaves too much space and crowds the plants and this can compromise yields.
The ministry is advising farmers on what to plant after predictions that the country will have normal to below normal rainfall from October 2009 to the first quarter of 2010. "The ministry is, however, aware of the threat to sorghum by quelea (tlhaga), but the more the area planted with sorghum the less the impact of tlhaga on the sorghum crop and the less the area under sorghum the higher the impact," the statement said.
