Adoption of Improved Sorghum and Pearl Millet ... - Icrisat

service. Other sources of information were other farmers, researchers, and NGOs (Table 11).
As a result of the seed systems work and extension promotion, by the 1999/00 season, 22% of
sorghum growers in Tanzania were planting Pato; 13% were growing Tegemeo, 13% were
growing Serena. The following season, the proportion of Pato farmers had increased to 28%,
followed by Serena (16%) at the expense of a slight drop in Tegemeo (11%). However, about
half of all sorghum farmers continue to maintain their local landrace varieties.
In general, adoption of improved sorghum and millet varieties is higher in drier areas
(Table 12). This is largely because development and seed distribution efforts have concentrated
on these areas, rather than on higher-rainfall regions like Arusha.
Table 9. Percentage of farmers who are aware of, or have grown, the new sorghum varieties, 2001.
Aware of improved variety(ies), % Have grown improved variety(ies), %
Dodoma 79.5 61.5
Singida 60.0 38.1
Tabora 60.0 35.0
Shinyanga 63.1 45.0
Mwanza 50.5 42.0
Mara 45.6 47.1
Lindi 15.7 6.3
Mtwara 28.1 20.3
Arusha 36.0 29.2
Weighted mean* 56.8 42.3
* Weighted in terms of number of farmers, ie number of farmers sampled in the region as a proportion of total sorghum farmers in the sample
Table 10. Area (‘000 ha) planted to improved sorghum varieties by region, based on 2001 adoption survey.
Other major Other minor % area under
production production improved
Dodoma Singida Shinyanga Mwanza areas areas Total varieties*
Planted area 97 60 121 73 158 165 664 36
Improved varieties 46 18 50 37 53 40 244
Local varieties 51 42 71 36 105 115 420
* Weighted in terms of area, ie sorghum area in the region as a proportion of national sorghum area
Table 11. Percentage of farmers learning about the improved sorghum variety Pato from different
sources, 2001.
Extension Other farmers Other sources
Dodoma 82.1 17.9 0
Mara 50.0 50.0 0
Mtwara 100.0 0 0
Mwanza 90.9 0 9.1
Shinyanga 70.8 12.5 16.7
Singida 48.0 44.0 8.0
Tabora 66.7 33.3 0
Weighted mean* 67.2 18.1 6.2
* Weighted in terms of number of farmers, ie number of farmers sampled in the region as a proportion of total sorghum farmers in the sample
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