Quantitative Measurement of Effect of Some Inputs in Sorghum Production in Sudan Using the Grey Analysis Method

The current study was conducted using the Gray Analysis Method to analyze the effect of total area under sorghum, number of tractors, number of combine harvesters and thresher, and value of imported pesticides on total sorghum production in Sudan for the period from 1998-2006. In the model, the production of sorghum was designated as mother factor, while total area under sorghum, number of tractors, number of combine harvesters and thresher, and value of imported pesticides, were designated as sub-factors. The data were averagized. Then the relative differences between mother factor and sub-factors were calculated using λ = 0.5 as a distinguishing parameter. The correlation degrees of sub-factors to mother factor were computed and the values were then ranked decently. The results of the analysis showed that, the number of tractors exerted the highest impact on sorghum production (67.5%) followed by number of combine harvesters and threshers (67.4%). The value of imported pesticides affected the sorghum production by 59.4%, while total area under the crop showed 49.4% as the lowest effect on sorghum production. Key word: Grey analysis; Sorghum production.