Accelerating Seed Germination and Juvenile Growth of Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) to Manage Climate Variability through Hydro-Priming

Agriculture in Mali, a country Sahelian West Africa, strongly depends on rainfall and concurrently has low adaptive capacity, making it consequently one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change worldwide. Since early-season drought limits crop germination, hence growth, ultimately yield during rain-fed depending production is commonly experienced nowadays Mali. Germination establishment key crops such as staple sorghum could be improved by seed priming. The effects hydro-priming with different water sources (e.g., distilled, tap, rain, river, well water) were evaluated respectively for three priming time durations tepid e.g., at 25 °C (4, 8, 12 h) hot 70 (in contrast 10, 20, 30 min.) 2014 2015. Seed germination seedling development nine genotypes monitored. Compared non-primed treatments, significantly [p = 0.01] final percentage, rate index, total length, root vigor shoot dry weight. from wells rivers resulted significant higher (85%) development, compared other water. rate, uniformity, speed enhanced also. It argued that safe simple method effectively improve sorghum. If used fields, above promising may contribute managing early season avoid failure high variability contexts.