Impact of organo-mineral fertilization, sowing dates and climate variability on yields and water productivity of three improved sorghum cultivars in the Sudanian agroecological zone of Mali

Abstract

Sorghum production in Mali faces challenges, including low soil fertility and climate variability. To assess the effects of management practices (fertilizer types, sowing dates) on biomass and grain yields, as well as water use efficiency (WUE) of grain yield, experiments were conducted at the ICRISAT Samanko and IER N’Tarla research stations. A split-split plot design was used as the experimental design during the 2021 and 2022 growing seasons, with four fertilization types as factors: F1 (the control); F2 (the recommended option, 100 kg ha-1 DAP + 50 kg ha-1 Urea); F3 (the organic amendment, 5000 kg ha-1 cow dung); and F4 (the combined option, 50 kg ha-1 DAP + 25 kg ha-1 Urea + 2500 kg ha-1 cow dung). Two sowing dates (SWD1, medium, and SWD2, late sowings) and three sorghum varieties were also included. The results revealed that SWD1 produced higher biomass and grain yields, as well as WUE, compared to SWD2 at Samanko during both seasons. SWD1 outperformed SWD2 for biomass and grain yields, with increases of 65% and 30%, respectively. The organo-mineral fertilization (F4) recorded the highest biomass and grain yields and WUE compared to the other fertilization types (F2, F3, and F1). During both cropping seasons (2021 and 2022), the hybrid Pablo produced the highest biomass (4083 and 6795 kg ha-1) and grain (1765 and 2740 kg ha-1) yields, as well as the highest water WUE (3.83 and 6.15 kg ha-1 mm-1) at Samanko, while the Soubatimi variety produced the highest biomass (6171 and 7085 kg ha-1) at N’Tarla. For the study’s agroecological zones, Pablo and Soubatimi for SWD1, and Jakunbe for SWD2, all with the organo-mineral fertilization were recommended.