EXPLOITING THE CHARACTERISTICS OF CENTRAL COMPOSITE DESIGN FOR HIGH YIELD OF SORGHUM

Abstract

Sorghum is a nutritious cereal grain with a potential for healthy feeding, regional development and sustainable
economies. The World Food Programme (WFP), Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG): Zero hunger, aims
at eradicating hunger in the world. Maximizing yield of Sorghum by exploiting the statistical Central Composite Design (CCD) characteristics would be attractive in meeting the need to eradicate hanger. This paper focuses on using one Response Surface Methodology (RSM), the CCD to develop a model that is useful in high
production of Sorghum in Meru County, Kenya using application of organic and inorganic fertilizers. This
study used nitrogen fertilizer ( ) supplied in form of Calcium Ammonium Nitrate (CAN) 26%, goat manure
( ) and vegimax folia fertilizer ( ).as the independent variables The data obtained from the study was
analyzed using the R statistical software and the output showed that Nitrogen fertilizer, Goat manure and Vegimax folia were significant at varied levels of significance (p < 0.001, P=0.0485249, and P=0.0096342 respectively). All the quadratic functions were significant (p-values < 0.05) but the factor interactions were all insignificant (p-value>0.05). The findings indicated that 112 Kg/ha of Nitrogen fertilizer, 12 tons/ha of goat manure
and 5.5 ml/20L( of water) of Vegimax folia were the optimum values that lead to maximum sorghum grain
yield of 4.95 tons/ha. The Multiple R-squared and Adjusted R-squared were 0.9277 and 0.8627 respectively,
an indication that the fitted model explained 92.8% and 86.3% of the variations in the model. The research
output will contribute to sustainable livelihoods and economies for transformative societies.