Simulating the effects of plant traits for increasing grain sorghum in waterlimited environments: a case study of West Africa Sudano-Sahelian regionF MAkinseyeauthorH AAjeigbeauthorZ BBirhanuauthorI IAngarawaiauthorThe need to improve the performance of dryland crops in semiarid environments cannot be over emphasized, because growth and development of such crops are often limited by moisture and other abiotic factors. Sorghum production in commercial situations requires maximising grain yield on limited available water resources, which requires maximizing the ratio of yield to evapotranspiration. In this study, a system analysis was undertaken to identify those plant traits that might be altered to improve sorghum yield in a moisture-limited environment. APSIM model was used to simulate sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. moench) for 30-year period at two locations (Kano, Nigeria and Bamako, Mali), characterized by high inter-annual rainfall variability and evapotranspiration in the Sudano-Sahelian region of West Africa. Since sorghum is known to be better adapted to drier environments, a number of individual plant traits were adjusted in the calibrated APSIM sorghum-module for the two selected varieties. In the tested environments, it was found that decreasing leaf size and increasing seed growth both resulted in decreased yield while the ratio of grain yield to evapotranspiration was decreased. Combining sorghum plant traits in the model resulted in increased yield and the ratio of grain yield to evapotranspiration when the average for all the years simulated. In addition, the simulated grain yield show decline up to 25% in Bamako, Mali and 35% in Kano, Nigeria for both varieties. These results indicate future adaptations strategy to climate variability and change for sorghums variety is required while maintaining improving soil quality in a continuing process.SorghumWest Africa2017-02Conference or Workshop Item