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

Table 1. Sorghum area (‘000 ha) in Tanzania, by zone and region, 3-year averages.
91/92 to 93/94 94/95 to 96/97 97/98 to 99/00 Mean, 1990s
Northern Zone
Arusha 19 10 20 16.25
Kilimanjaro 1 3 6 3.19
Eastern Zone
Coast/DSM 5 9 25 12.83
Morogoro 32 39 21 30.54
Tanga 1 7 17 8.35
Central Zone
Dodoma 110 93 103 102.09
Singida 75 61 59 65.15
Southern Zone
Iringa 23 24 35 27.11
Lindi 28 28 32 29.39
Mbeya 13 17 18 16.06
Mtwara 23 35 34 30.60
Rukwa 8 9 6 7.40
Ruvuma 4 4 3 3.48
Lake Zone
Kagera 18 18 17 17.69
Mara 43 34 49 42.33
Mwanza 97 107 54 85.98
Shinyanga 122 115 118 118.42
Western Zone
Kigoma 7 7 14 8.88
Tabora 38 41 34 37.54
Total 667.3 661.67 664.7 664.55
Sources: Crop Monitoring and Early Warning Unit, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security. 1994/95 data from National Sample Census of Agriculture Data
Maize is the dominant crop nationally (Fig 2) – even in traditionally sorghum-growing areas,
it may replace sorghum in seasons of good rainfall. Farmers in these areas normally sow maize; if
they suspect the season will be poor, they quickly sow sorghum as well. Maize is sown with the
first rains in November. If January rainfall is good, farmers concentrate their efforts on maize,
rather than sorghum. But if January rainfall is poor, they quickly expand the area sown to
sorghum or millet. During the 1990s for example, sorghum area varied from 594,000 ha (the
year when maize plantings were highest) to a peak of 738,000 ha. Millet area was even more
variable, fluctuating between 196,000 and 473,000 ha (Fig 2).
Sorghum and millets are grown in low-potential areas unsuitable for maize or other cereals.
Consequently, sorghum/millet yields are lower than maize yields – 1.36 t ha -1 for maize,
compared to 0.98 t ha -1 for sorghum and 0.79 t ha -1 for pearl millet, averaged over the 1990s
(Fig 3). Nevertheless, these are good average yields compared to elsewhere in Africa. In
particular, sorghum yields in Tanzania are among the highest in Africa, except for South Africa
where the reported national average is 2.1 t ha -1 (because of a large commercial farming sector
growing hybrid sorghum with high inputs).
While maize is planted over larger areas, it is important to note that sorghum and millets
account for over 25% of the total cereals production in Tanzania (Fig 4), and are extremely
important for food security, particularly in the drier areas.
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