Utilization of BUDGET Model for Determining the Optimum Sorghum Yield, Sowing Date and Storage Capacity of Water Harvesting System in Gadarif Rain Fed Areas

Abstract

Grain sorghum is the main staple food for human and animal consumption in the Sudan .it is mainly cultivated in the rain fed mechanized farming system in Gadaref area and southern Blue Nile areas. For food security planning purposes it is essential to predict early in the season (at planting time) crop yield and to develop methods to improve and sustain crop productivity. To achieve these objectives this study is directed to employ rainbow, ETo and crop budget software in order to estimate crop yield and optimum sowing dates of sorghum crop under different .scenarios of rainfall levels and distribution Although the records of available yield data is not fully complete and vary in accuracy the applied models are found to be capable to fairly predicting crop yield at various levels of soil moisture . it is found that yield improvements can be achieved by adopting early crop sowing in the first decade of July after the onset .the early 100mm rainfall and disappearance of cracles As a measure against the spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall the study .estimated the designed capacity for farm pond .The needed policy and future research are explored and explained in the thesis