Agricultural Research Corporation (ARC) - Sudan
Proceedings of the Meetings of the National Crop Husbandry Committee - NCHC
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Response of sorghum to NP fertilizers and cropping sequences at the
Rahad Scheme
Elfadil A. Babiker , Ahmed A. Salih , Azhari A. Hamada and Badreldin
A. Mohamed
Abstract:
Field experiments were conducted at the Rahad Re¬search Station over
three seasons to evaluate the re¬sponse of sorghum to NP fertilizers and
cropping se¬quences. Results indicated that grain yield of more than 5
t/ha can be achieved without fertilizers. Effect of N on sorghum yield
in the wheat-sorghum sequence was consistently significant and with high
nitrogen use ef¬ficiency (NUE). The response in the groundnut-sor¬ghum
sequence, however, varied with the levels of ini¬tial soil testing for
NO3-N and total-N. Despite differ¬ences between levels of fertilizers
above IN (43 kg N/ha) being statistically insignificant, regression
analysis indicated that economic optimum would be obtained at higher
rates. Accordingly economic optimum yield was achieved at approximately
2N (85 and 95 kg N/ha for groundnut-sorghum and wheat-sorghum,
respec¬tively). Leaf-N of 2.5 percent at heading emerged as the optimum
for maximum yields in both cropping se¬quences. The insignificant
response of sorghum to P¬ fertilizers was attributed to its sufficiency
level, i.e. 6-8 ppm available P. On the other hand, depletion of the
available P caused by increasing rates of applied-N was dis¬cussed in
relation to a dilution effect. Hence, frequent soil testing is needed to
assess for how long such an adequate supply of P could be maintained.
Proceedings of the Meetings of the National Crop Husbandry Committee 37th (2005) pp. 135-146
Proceedings of the Meetings of the National Crop Husbandry Committee - Sudan
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