FARMERS PERCEPTIONS ON DUAL-PURPOSE SORGHUM AND IT’S POTENTIAL IN ZAMBIA

Food feed crops play a cardinal role in mixed crop-livestock production systems yet views of farmers on their usage are limited. Farmers’ perceptions in predominant sorghum growing areas of Zambia were solicited on socio-economic factors affecting sorghum production, awareness and willingness to adopt dual-purpose sorghum cultivars for food and feed. Preferred traits of a “model” dual-purpose cultivar were identified. The aim of the study was to generate information that would support the genetic improvement of dual-purpose sorghum. Questionnaires were used to generate this information. Results showed that less than 50% of sorghum growing SSFs had limited knowledge on the use of sorghum to produce feed silage; however, there was full awareness among the LSFs. Among other traits, farmers’ “ideal” variety should combine high grain yield potential (100 %) with high biomass (100 % of LSFs and 80 % of SSFs) and high stem sugar content (100 % of LSF and 70 % of SSFs). All the SSFs and 20 % of the LSFs indicated that adequate production could be hampered by low grain yield, poor access to improved seed and unavailability of farmers’- preferred cultivars.