ELEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE AID-ARS PROJECT - MAJOR CEREALS IN WEST AFRICA 1974

THE FIRST CYCLE OF A RECURRENT SELECTION PROGRAM FOR INCREASING HIGH QUALTIY PROTEIN IN SC123 WAS COMPLETED THIS YEAR, AND A SIMILAR PROGRAM WAS STARTED WITH NCA AND NCB. THE HIGH PROTEIN RECOMBINATIONS OF THESE TWO POPULATIONS HAD 11.7 AND 11.9 PERCENT PROTEIN RESPECTIVELY, THE HIGHEST PROTEIN LEVEL OF ANY POPULATION TESTED. SEED INCREASES OF 3 MILLET VARIETIES, 5 SORGHUM VARIETIES, AND 5 MAIZE VARIETIES WERE MADE BY THE FOUNDATION SEED UNIT. THE SEED FROM THESE INCREASES WAS PROCESSED, AND 22 QUINTALS WERE DELIVERED TO 25 DIFFERENT ORGANIZATIONS FOR RESEARCH EXPERIMENTS AND TRIALS, AND 272 QUNITALS WERE SOLD TO VARIOUS STATES AND OTHER ORGANIZATIONS FOR MULTIPLICATION. TESTS OF SEED MOLD-RESISTANT LINES OF SORGHUM WERE CONTINUED. TRIALS WERE PLANTED IN MID-JUNE AND JULY 1-2, AND SHOWED THAT THE EARLIER PLANTINGS WHICH WERE EXPOSED TO MORE RAIN HAD MORE SEED MOLD DAMAGE THAN THE SAME LINES PLANTED 2-3 WEEKS LATER; BUT LINES THAT WERE SUPERIOR IN GRAIN MOLD REMAINED RELATIVELY SUPERIOR,WHETHER PLANTED EARLY OR LATE. 5 TRIALS FOR SHOOT FLY PRIMARY RESISTANCE WERE CONDUCTED ON RESISTANT VARIETIES FROM INDIA AND FROM CROSSES WITH THESE VARIETIES AND LOCAL MATERIAL. OVER HALF OF THE CROSSES WERE RESISTANT, AND THE RESISTANT VARIETIES REMAINED RESISTANT. OTHER VARIETIES AND CROSSES ARE BEING SCREENED FOR RECOVERY RESISTANCE. 2 TRIALS WITH 120 VARIETIES AND 174 SELECTIONS OF SORGHUM FROM 16 CROSSES SHOWED OVER 200 LINES WITH GOOD RESISTANCE TO THE MAIZE STEM BORER. A LONG-TERM CROP RESIDUE EXPERIMENT SHOWED THAT REMOVING CROP RESIDUE REDUCED THE SOIL ORGANIC MATTER, REDUCED THE EXCHANGEABLE MAGNESIUM AND POTASSIUM LEVEL OF THE SOIL, AND REDUCED YIELDS. BURNING THE RESIDUE AND RETURNING THE ASH RESULTED IN A SMALLER DECREASE IN PH THAN INCORPORATING OR REMOVING THE RESIDUE. A MIXTURE OF ROCK PHOSPHATE WITH SULFUR WAS SHOWN TO BE AS EFFICIENT AS SUPERPHOSPHATE. THE TESTS WERE PERFORMED ON A VIRGIN SOIL AT SAMARU, AND THE EQUIVALENT OF 150 KG/HA OF P205 OF SUPERPHOSPHATE OR ROCK PHOSPHATE WITH SULFUR WAS REQUIRED FOR MAXIMUM YIELDS.