Browsing by Author "Lubadde, Geofrey"

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    Effect of low temperature stress on field performance of highland sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) at flowering stages
    (Journal of Plant Breeding and Crop Science, 2020) Rutayisire, Amandin; Mukayiranga, Alice; Habineza, Jean Claude; Avosa, Millicent; Edema, Richard; Lubadde, Geofrey
    Sorghum is a C4 grass native in the semi-arid environments of the African sub-Saharan and consequently chilling stress can affect the performance of the crop, especially at the reproductive stages. Moreover, a significant delay of flowering and maturity was observed when sorghum grows under low temperatures regions, and consequently farmers in highland areas of Uganda face yield penalties. Forty genotypes were evaluated in 2017B and 2018A seasons under non-stress (Kabanyolo) and cold stress (Kachwekano and Zombo) field conditions. Data were recorded on: Days to 50% flowering, days to physiological maturity, culm height, panicle length, panicle weight, kernel weight per panicle, and thousand grain weight. Mean comparison of most agronomic traits recorded indicated high significant differences for season-by-genotype, location-by-genotypes, and the three-way interaction (GxLxS). This indicates that cold stress significantly affects yield components. Significant positive correlation was obtained between days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, and culm height, which suggested that simultaneous improvement of these traits is possible. Some genotypes (IESV 91003LT, IESV 91105LT and IS 29376) were best ranked in normal environment but poorly performed in cold environments, which indicates lack of adaptation in highland. BM6, Cytanobe, IESV 91018, IESV 91609, IS 25563 showed generally good performance and stability in all locations. Therefore, these genotypes can be used as parental lines for further breeding process.
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    Impact of Uganda’s National Agricultural Advisory Services Program
    (International Food Policy Research Institute, 2011) Benin, Samuel; Nkonya, Ephraim; Okecho, Geresom; Randriamamonjy, Josée; Kato, Edward; Lubadde, Geofrey; Kyotalimye, Miriam; Byekwaso, Francis
    The importance of agricultural extension in agricultural and rural development is widely known, so it is not surprising that agricultural extension has attracted substantial investment of public resources since t he 1950s, when national agricultural advisory services began t o be formally established by government s, and has strongly returned to the international development agenda (World Bank 2007a). Due to competing uses of public resources for promoting overall growth and equitable distribution, however, careful reflection of the impacts of and returns to public spending in agricultural advisory services is necessary. This is the aim of this study, which focuses on t he NAADS program in Uganda that has been implemented since 2001. The NAADS program, which is a key strategy for implementing t he government ’ s poverty reduction and national development plan, was conceived as a move away from t he t op-down approach that is publicly funded, with services provided by public agents, to a demand-driven approach that is still largely publicly funded but wit h services provided by the private sector. The program targets the development and use of farmer institutions and in the process seeks to empower them t o procure enterprise-based advisory services, manage linkages wit h marketing partners, and conduct monitoring and evaluation of the advisory services they receive from the private sector (Uganda, NAADS Secretariat 2001). By end of the 2006–07 financial year, the period of the analysis in this study, about UGX 110 billion (in 2000 UGX) had been spent on the program, which had been extended t o 545 sub counties (about 83.1 percent of the total sub counties in Uganda at the time) from the initial 24 sub counties in six district s where it had been launched. Furthermore, about 1,622 contracts with private-sector service providers had been signed, more than 40 enterprises had been promoted, and about 40,000 farmer groups and 716,000 farmers (representing about 20 percent of the national farming households) had received services from the program
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    Pearl Millet Socioeconomic and Production Characteristics in Uganda
    (National Semi Arid Resources Research Institute, 2015) Lubadde, Geofrey; Tongoona, Pangirai; Derera, John; Sibiya, Julia
    Pearl millet is an important cereal grown by farmers in environmentally marginalised areas. In Uganda it is mainly grown in northern (Acholi), northeastern (Karamoja) and eastern (Teso) regions. The regions are characterised by semi-arid conditions with high temperatures, low mean annual rainfall and widespread chronic food insecurity. Technologies that increase pearl millet productivity under such conditions have been developed in international research institutes to highlight the importance of pearl millet as a resilient crop suitable for drought conditions. However, not much is known about the importance of the crop in Uganda. A baseline survey was thus conducted to document pearl millet farmers’ socioeconomic and production characteristics in the country. Information was collected about demography and food security situation, livelihood, social capital and trainings, importance and utilisation of pearl millet, agronomic characteristics, desirable and undesirable traits, factors of crop and animal production, post-harvest handling, production and marketing constraints and coping strategies. Results indicated that the average age of heads of households (mainly males) was 45.78 years while that of their spouses was 37.22 years; with a pearl millet growing experience of over six years. In addition, majority of the households had 6-10 members many of whom were below 15 years. The heads of households were married with education experience of more than five years while their spouses were generally illiterate. The household heads and their spouses farmed the land as their main economic activity. Furthermore, majority of the households lived under poor conditions where the main house had a single room built of mud and wattle with grass as the main roofing material and earth floor. The poor living standards were worsened by majority of the households facing perpetual food insecurity mainly due to drought, insect pests, plant diseases and lack of improved planting materials.
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    Registration of ‘NAROSORG1 and NAROSORG3’ Sorghum Varieties with High Grain Yield and Superior Grain Qualities from Uganda
    (International Journal of Applied Agricultural Sciences, 2020) Andiku, Charles; Lubadde, Geofrey; Aru, Charles John; Emanio, John; Adrogu Ugen, Michael; Ebiyau, Johnie
    Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is the third most important cereals after maize and rice in Uganda. It is mainly grown by the resource-poor rural farmers in Uganda as a staple food, but this trend has changed recently due to the gradual transition of the crop from traditional food crops to a cash crop. National Semi-Arid Resources Research Institute (NaSARRI) therefore developed and released NAROSORG1 and NAROSORG3 in 2017 with high yields and superior grain qualities for food and commercial beer production in the country. NAROSORG1 and NAROSORG3 are a selection from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) advanced breeding lines ICSR160 and IESV92043DL respectively. Sorghum line, IESV92043DL (NAROSORG3) was bred by ICRISAT Nairobi from a cross between KARI Mtama 1 x Seredo and developed into an open-pollinated pure line variety through pedigree selection. However, the sorghum line, ICSR160 (NAROSORG1) was introduced as a Restorer or Male Parent (R-Line) for hybrid development from ICRISAT India but adapted well as a variety with very good brewing qualities for lager beer (no tannin and high extracts) production and its white-seeded variety. Performance evaluation was conducted in Uganda for two consecutive seasons of 2017 and the results showed that NAROSORG1 and NAROSORG3 had significantly higher grain yields (13.8% and 12.2%) and 1000-seed weight percentages (30.2% and 28.9%) respectively than commercial check variety, SESO1. NAROSORG1 has a good grain quality with 100% free tannin levels which is good for commercial lager beer production while NAROSORG3 had sweet juicy stalk with stay-green trait suitable for forage production in addition to good grain quality.
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    Registration of ‘NAROSORG2’ Sorghum Variety with Desirable Farmer Attributes for Uganda
    (International Journal of Applied Agricultural Sciences, 2020) Andiku, Charles; Lubadde, Geofrey; Aru, Charles John; Emanio, John; Adrogu Ugen, Michael; Ebiyau, Johnie
    Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is the major cereal in Uganda that has recently evolved from being a food crop to a cash crop. However, low farm yields of less than 500 kg ha-1 have been recorded due to both abiotic and biotic stresses. Consequently, NaSARRI developed NAROSORG2, released in 2017, that can withstand some of the abiotic and biotic stresses. NAROSORG2 is a derived red seeded local landrace selection (IS8193) from East Africa, advanced by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) through repeated bulk selections for tolerance against abiotic and biotic stresses. The agronomic evaluation was carried out in Uganda for the first and second rainy seasons of 2017 and the findings indicated that NAROSORG2, out-performed the check commercial variety, SESO3 with mean grain yield of 2740 kg ha-1 across the entire environment. It also recorded early days to 50% flowering of 65.23 days (early maturity variety) like the commercial check variety, SESO3 with a medium height of 165.35 cm. NAROSORG2 has superior agronomic traits of stay-green trait, resistant to bird damage due to high levels of tannins, drought, midge, and Striga tolerant, good for food, and local brew. Therefore, it will supplement other released varieties in contributing to food security and poverty alleviation among the rural communities in Uganda.
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    Sorghum production handbook for Uganda
    (NaSARRI-NARO, 2019) Lubadde, Geofrey; Ebiyau, John; Aru, John C.; Andiku, Charles; Wandulu, Joseph A.; Ugen, Michael A.
    Sorghum is an important income and food security crop for those living in drought-prone regions of Uganda. Many races of the cereal are grown in almost all zones but the northern region is the highest producer followed by eastern, western and lastly the central. Much as the northern region is the highest producer of sorghum, the region experiences the lowest productivity indicating that production is due to increased area in cultivation. The increased area is due to wide scale cultivation of improved sorghum such as Epurpur and now SESO1 which is cultivated for income generation due to its use for making larger beer. The increased production of specialty improved varieties in the last ten years has made sorghum the second most important cereal after maize. However, productivity is generally still low due to a number of factors. Farmers hardly follow the recommended agronomic practices which normally lead to high productivity. Broadcasting is the common practice of sowing sorghum yet row planting at spacing of 60x20cm or 60x30 cm would result in high productivity. Farmers weed only once and do not apply any fertliser or spray to control diseases and insect pests such as shoot flies or stem borers which are problematic especially for late planted sorghum. The most important diseases are ergot, covered kernel smut and anthracnose while insect pests are shoot fly, stem borers and midge. This is cofounded by the low fertility of the sandy-loam soils and high striga infestation which are common in most of sorghum growing regions in addition to poor postharvest handling. After harvesting farmers dry the sorghum on bare ground which leads to contamination with debris. The best practice would be to dry the sorghum on tarpaulin or cemented ground or well swept bare ground for those who cannot afford improved materials. The sorghum should be dried to about 12% moisture content before threshing or storage. Farmers store unthreshed sorghum for use as seed in the following season above the fire place in the kitchen while grain sorghum is stored in granaries either as threshed or unthreshed. The granaries are constructed on raised platforms with rat guards. The stored sorghum should be checked regularly to make sure it is not affected by moulds.