Improved Sorghum Technologies Are Vital in Ensuring Food Security: The Case of Benishangul Gumuz Region, Ethiopia

Sorghum is the vital food security crop in semi-arid region of the world including Ethiopia. This activity was conducted to demonstrate improved sorghum technologies in Assosa zone by involving 479 male headed and 57 Female headed households. The average age of the participant was 40 to 46 years with mean farming experience 22-30 years. The participant farmers provide 0.125 to 1 hectares of land and a total of 314.5 ha of land were used. The training was given for all farmers, Regional and district experts, and concerned development agents at Kebeles were the trial conducted. The field day was organized at physiological maturity involving 713 participants. Mean grain yield of improved Assosa-1 sorghum variety at demonstrated areas were 26.8 qt.ha<sup>-1</sup> at Assosa, 29 qtha<sup>-1</sup> at Bambasi, and 32 qt.ha<sup>-1</sup> at Homosha. The technological gap in the study area ranges from 6 to 11.2 qt.ha<sup>-1</sup>, with an average technological yield gap of 8.73 qtha<sup>-1</sup>. The highest technological yield gap 11.2 q.ha<sup>-1</sup> was observed in Assosa district and the lowest technological gap 6 q.ha<sup>-1</sup> was observed in Homosha district. Similarly, the extension yield gaps were ranged from 12.8 to 20 qt.ha<sup>-1</sup> with an average yield of 15.6 qtha<sup>-1</sup>. The result further showed that the highest extension gap of 20 qt.ha<sup>-1</sup> was observed at Homosha district and the lowest extension gap was observed at Assosa districts with 12.8 qt.ha<sup>-1</sup>.