Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 23 ISSUE 3
Written by Dumitru MANOLE, Ana Maria GIUMBA, Laurentiu GANEA

The geographical area between the Danube and the Black Sea, Dobrogea, represents a region with the highest aridity indices. The average precipitation in the period 1961-2016 was 464 mm. Climate changes in recent years have accentuated this phenomenon and, due to this, low production levels of 1-2 tons/ha were achieved on large areas of corn. In the year 2022/2023, over 40,000 ha cultivated with corn in Constanta county were deeply affected by the lack of rainfalls, high temperatures and long and severe drought. In these particularly dry conditions, sorghum becomes an essential alternative. This study aimed to continue the experiments with sorghum hybrids which have been carried out during the last 15 years at SPORT AGRA Ltd from Amzacea Village, Constanta County, in order to adapt the technologies to climate changes. The novelty of this research is that the adapted technologies include, among other things, the following elements: changing the planting period by approximately 25-30 days compared to the recommendations of classical technologies (planting starting from the first decade of May in order to use the moisture in the soil layer at the depth of seed incorporation 4-5 cm.), the use of early hybrids in order to overcome the periods of heat that in this area start from mid-June, the use of technological means of crop protection that include pre- and post-emergent herbicides, seed treatment prior to planting. In these conditions of development of non-irrigated sorghum technology, we propose planting this crop earlier (25-30 days compared to classic technology). In this way, the sorghum will benefit from the water reserve accumulated during the fall of the previous year. The productions of the sorghum hybrids used in the observation research fields were over 10 to/ha in most of the tested hybrids.

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