CELL BIOLOGY & DEVELOPMENT Volume 1, Number 1, June 2017 E-ISSN: 2580-4499 Pages: 18-22 DOI: 10.13057/cellbioldev/t010104 Microdosing technology of fertilizer for sorghum production at Shambat, Sudan MONIRAH BABIKER MOHAMED ARBAB, YASSIN MOHMAD IBRAHIM DAGASH ♥ Department of Agronomy, College of Agricultural Studies, Sudan University of Science and Technology. Shambat, Khartoum, Sudan. ♥ email: dagash501@gmail.com Manuscript received: 4 May 2017. Revision accepted: 19 June 2017. Abstract. Arbab MBM, Dagash YMI. 2017. Microdosing technology of fertilizer for sorghum production at Shambat, Sudan. Cell Biol Dev 1: 18-22. The study was conducted at the experimental farm of Sudan University of Science and Technology, College of Agricultural Studies; Khartoum North-Shambat, to investigate the agronomic response and efficiency of fertilizer microdosing in Sorghum. An experiment with the following treatments was achieved: control without fertilizer, microdosing treatments with the rates of 1, 2, 3 and 4 g NPK per plant hole at sowing. The treatments were arranged in a completely randomized block design with four replications. The experiment was conducted during the growing season of 2015. Weeding was carried once after three weeks from seed germination and irrigated weekly. The following parameters were considered during experimentation; the number of leaves, plant height, node length and stem thickness, while the shoot fresh and dry weights were recorded at termination. The data collected were subjected to analysis of variance and the means were separated by Duncan’s multiple rang test. The results obtained showed the progressive improvement of all Sorghum tested characters. There were highly significant differences in plant height, stem thickness, shoot fresh and dry weight. The number of leaves and the node length showed significant differences. The four gram microdose gave the best results. Keywords: Microdosing, technology, fertilizer, sorghum INTRODUCTION Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) Moench; is the world’s fifth most commonly grown cereal crop after wheat, rice, maize and barley Poehlman (1994). Sorghum has many types of cultivated varieties, such as grain genotypes, fodder, fiber and sugar genotypes and dual purpose genotypes. Sorghum belongs to C4 plant characteristic for tolerate a biotic stresses more than many crops Gnansounou et al. 2005. Recently, sorghum had received significant attention because of the newer use as a Biofuel feedstock (Paterson 2008). Assessment of the genetic variability within cultivated crops and varieties has a strong impact on plant breeding strategies and conservation of genetic resources (Dean et al. 1999; Simioniuc et al. 2002) and is particularly useful in the characterization of individuals, accessions and cultivars in germplasm collections and for the choice of parental genotypes in breeding programs (Davila et al. 1998; Ribaut et al. 1998). In the past, indirect estimates of similarity based on morphological information have been widely used in many species including sorghum (Ayana 1999). However, morphological variation does not reliably reflect the real genetic variation because of genotype environment interactions and the largely unknown genetic control of poly-genetically inherited morphological and agronomic traits (Smith and Smith 1992). Molecular analyses in conjunction with morphological and agronomic evaluation of germplasm are recommended, because these provide complementary information and increase the resolving power of genetic diversity analyses (Singh et al. 1991). Land degradation affects more than half of Africa, leading to loss of an estimated 42 billion dollars and 5 million hectares of productive land each year. The majority of farm lands produce poor yields due to poor farming techniques (nutrient deficiency and irregular watering) (ICRISAT 2009). The decline in fertility of croplands is the basis of food insecurity in households especially the poor peasants are the most numerous in agriculture in the Sudan region of Mali. According to Sime and Aune (2014), the fallow which was the traditional way to restore the fertility of the land has almost disappeared in some places and in others its duration was significantly reduced because of demographic pressure. The technical packages to sustainably increase production are not within their reach. From the 1980s, there has been a decline in public funding in agriculture and paralysis of the sector of small producers in developing countries because of the structural adjustment policies of the IMF and the World Bank (Azoulay and Saizal 1994; FAO 1995; World Bank 2007). Many governments in sub-Saharan Africa have made efforts in improving agricultural productivity through the creation of agricultural extension services. But these creations have not fulfilled the expectations of farmers mainly rural women (FAO 2008). The development of sub- Saharan agriculture took from that moment an approach for the identification of technical innovation and communication giving more space to the farmers in the development of appropriate strategies for development. The farmer field school is one of these strategies lying in the extension approach of bottom up allowing farmers to