The Role of Agricultural Extension in Raising the Productivity of Rainfed Sorghum Small-Scale Farmers in Gezira State, Sudan: A Case Study from South Gezira Locality

Sorghum is one of the most important crops of Sudan according to its economic and nutritional value. The climate change and use of traditional cultural practices are the major problems of sorghum production in the rainfed sector of Sudan and consequently, the yield of the crop did not exceed two sacs/feddan. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture has designed and financed a special programme for the traditional rainfed sector of the country called the National Integrated Solutions Programme as the main adaptation strategy to solve these problems since 2014 growing season with objective to diversify and increase production and productivity of crops cultivated in traditional rainfed areas in each State of the country such as sorghum, sesame, millet and sunflower. The present study seeks to investigate farmer`s adoption of National Integrated Solutions Programme Package for rainfed sorghum farmers in South Gezira Locality, Gezira State, Sudan. A field survey was used to collect data from 125 rainfed farmers participated in the programme and an equal number from non- participant farmers from the study area were selected for comparison using the simple random sampling technique. A close-ended questionnaire was constructed and the personal interview technique was used to administer the questionnaire. The collected data were coded, fed to the computer and statistically analyzed using (SPSS), discussed interpreted using descriptive statistics and chi-square test. The descriptive analysis showed that the majority of participant farmers were adopted the programme components and their production was increased significantly. Chi-square test result revealed that there was no significant association between participation in the programme and adoption of the programme components as a result of many constraints faced by the farmers during the growing season. From this study, it can be concluded that the National Integrated Solutions Programme for supporting rainfed sorghum small- scale farmers are a very effective agricultural national strategy for the rainfed sector of the country, which in turn will help rainfed farmers to increase their production and consequently their income through the adoption of the programme components. The study recommends that this national programme for supporting rainfed sorghum farmers should continue, the needed inputs should be available, the agricultural extension officers should be trained on the programme components to be able to implement it effectively and further agricultural extension research in this area should be conducted.