1. Introduction
Sorghum is the fifth most important cereal crop in the world after wheat, rice, corn and barley. It is an environmentally-friendly crop as it is water efficiency, requires little or no fertilisers or no pesticides and is biodegradable. In Rwanda, Sorghum is an important cereal grown in high altitude, middle altitude and low altitude agroecological zones. It is consumed locally as porridge, a famous breakfast for many Rwandan people and is brewed as alcohol and non alcohol local beers, which are important drinks in Rwandan culture, ddespite its importance, sorghum yield is low at farm level. The major production constraints are Striga species weeds, lack of high yielding varieties, low soil fertility, pests and diseases, low farmers’ knowledge on appropriate cultural sorghum practices.
2.Varieties
There are more than 200 sorghum varieties in Rwanda and many of them are landraces that are conserved in Rwanda National Genebank. In terms of high yielding varieties, Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB) promotes 6 varieties which are suitable to different agro-ecological zones:
- For low altitude agroecological zone: IS21219 and IS8193 are high yielding varieties compared to the remaining ones.
- For Middle altitude agroecological zone: Kigufi, Ikinyaruka and the same variety IS21219 and IS8193 are doing well in this agroecological zone. Figure 2 shows respectively IS21219 and Kigufi varieties grown in Rubona Center for seeds multiplication.
High altitude agroecological zone: there are 3 varieties BM1, BM 33 and N9 that are giving high yield compared to the other varieties. The figure below shows N9 variety grown in Rwerere Center field in 2009.
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