Can sorghum Sudanense be an alternative for maize forage in the frame of sustainable water management?

Year 2024, Volume: 8 Issue: 1, 14 - 16, 30.06.2024

Figen Ceylan , Burhan Özkan

Abstract

Maize forage is an important feed crop for animal breeding, and it needs a significant amount of water during cultivation. Sorghum Sudanense (Sudan grass) has appeared as an alternative to maize forage with its similar feeding qualities but lower water demand. This study intended to understand the potential effect of de-coupled price supports on production of sorghum and maize. Therefore, production amount of maize and sorghum were estimated for the USA, as a major forage crop producer, with supply response modelling for 1991 and 2021 to understand the effect of price on supplies.
The findings inferred that price affects maize and sorghum supplies in the USA by 20 % on average with an annual lag, with almost no difference. The USA example emphasized the importance of informing producers and sellers of feed products, and animal breeders regarding the low water demand and lower irrigation costs of Sudan grass. This may contribute to lower water use in feed production for animal breeding and to water sustainability accordingly. Besides, it was understood that price incentives may be used to encourage users of sorghum Sudanense rather than sorghum farmers to promote the product in the forage crop market in an indirect way.

Keywords

forage crops, water, sustainability, price, USA

Ethical Statement

There is no ethical concern between authors, neither with a third party.

References

• Anonymous. (2023). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAOSTAT). Crop and Livestock Products. (Available online: https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL, accessed on: May 2023)
• Benoit, K. (2011). Linear Regression Models with Logarithmic Transformations. Lond. Sch. Econ. Lond. 22 (1): 23–36. Chaudhuri, U.N., Burnett, R B., Kirkham, M.B., Kanemasu, E.T. (1986). Effect of Carbon Dioxide on Sorghum Yield, Root Growth, and Water Use. Agric. For. Meteorol. 37 (2): 109–122.
• Dickey, D.A. and Fuller, W. (1981). A. Likelihood Ratio Statistics for Autoregressive Time Series with A Unit Root. Econometrica: Journal of the Econometric Society. 1057–1072.
• Dragičević, V., Šaponjić, B., Terzić, D., Simić, M., Djordjevic, N., Dumanović, Z. (2016). Environmental Conditions and Crop Density as the Limiting Factors of Forage Maize Production. J. Agric. Sci. 61 (1): 11–18.
• Engle, R.F. and Granger, C.W. (1987). Co-Integration and Error Correction: Representation, Estimation, and Testing. Econometrica: Journal of the Econometric Society. 251–276.
• Gelley, C.H., Ashworth, A.J., Keyser, P.D., Nave, R.L.G., Rhinehart, J.D. (2020). Water-Use Efficiency of Forage Crops in the Southeastern United States. Agronomy. 10 (9): 1377. Https://Doi.Org/10.3390/Agronomy10091377.
• Getachew, G., Putnam, D. H., De Ben, C. M., De Peters, E. J. 2016. Potential of Sorghum as an Alternative to Corn Forage. Am. J. Plant Sci. 7 (7): 1106–1121.
• Granger, C. W. 1981. Some Properties of Time Series Data and Their Use in Econometric Model Specification. J. Econom. 16 (1): 121–130.
• Ha, F. 1995. Summer Annual Grasses. Introd. Grassl. Agric. 463–472.
• Huang, Z., Dunkerley, D., López-Vicente, M., Wu, G.-L. (2020). Trade-Offs of Dryland Forage Production and Soil Water Consumption in a Semi-Arid Area. Agric. Water Manag. 241, 106349.
• Johansen, S. (1988). Statistical Analysis of Cointegration Vectors. J. Econ. Dyn. Control 12 (2–3), 231–254.
• Meeske, R. and Basson, H.M. (1995). Research Note: Maize and Forage Sorghum as Silage Crops Under Drought Conditions.
• Moray, S., Istanbulluoglu, A. (2022). Water-Yield Relationships of Sorghum-Sudangrass Hybrid (Sorghum bicolour-Sorghum Sudanense) in Tekirdağ Conditions. Journal of Tekirdag Agricultural Faculty. 19 (1): 166–176. https://Doi.Org/10.33462/Jotaf.940751.
• Nazli, R.I., Ilker, I., Kusvuran, A., Tansi, V. (2014). Effects of Different Organic Materials on Forage Production from Sorghum X Sudangrass Hybrid (Sorghum Bicolor X Sorghum Bicolor Var. Sudanense). Turkish Journal of Agricultural and Natural Sciences (Special Issue-2): 2075–2082.
• Nerlove, M. and Addison, W. (1958). Statistical Estimation of Long-Run Elasticities of Supply and Demand. J. Farm Econ. 40 (4), 861–880.