The aim of this study was to estimate the relative efficiency (RE) of an On-Farm Experiment conducted in randomized complete block design (RCBD) compared with a completely randomized design (CRD). An on-farm experiment was carried out at Noralhuda, Gezira, Sudan during season 2010. A set of six varieties of sorghum were evaluated in this study and data was collected on flowering period (FP), number of plant (NP), plant height (PH, cm), head length (HL, cm)), 100 seed weight (SW, g), forage weight (FW, kg) and productivity (P, t/ha). Relative efficiency to RCBD, of on-farm experiment was about 91%, 2.04%, 1.22% , 0.91% , 0.88% , 0.99% and 0.89 for FP, NP, PH, HL, 100SW, FW, and P respectively. The coefficients of variation (CV), coefficient of determination (R2) and relative efficiency (RE) were 7.70%, 78% and 1.12% for RCBD respectively. The relative efficiency of on-farm trials show the same efficiency comparing to RCBD, as can be expected. It would have attained the same sensitivity as in RCBD or CRD with about approximately 100% of replication used. The use of completely randomized design was most suited on farms where blocks might be difficult to be formed and impractical to maintain, it was found that experimental design efficiency compared to RCBD is not too low on-farming experimental.

Biometrics plays an active role in the research methods for scientists and research interns during planning, development and implementation of research projects. A number of measures have been put in place to improve the research capacity among the scientist in various sectors of agricultural research among other related disciplines. The present statistics shows that the field of biometry in a number of research institutions especially in Africa is still wanting. Therefore, the objective of this study was to addresses the role of biometry in developing capacity of research methods for agricultural research scientists. The study was carried in Agricultural Research Corporation (ARC), Wad Medani, Sudan. Where sample size of 50 scientists was selected using simple random sampling procedures. The major variables tested were methods used in data analysis, research experience, refresher courses, institutional capacity and quality of published papers among others through administering semi-structured questionnaire. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, non-parametric methods and regression modeling. The results showed that there was a significant difference (p<0.01) on agreement of the methods used in data analyses where over 90% strongly valued application of various statistical methods as compared to about 8% who did not value the said methods. In addition, there was a significant correlation (p<0.01, R2=41.7%) between the number of scientific papers and years of research where the result indicated that for every ten years of research there was about four peer reviewed journal papers. Overall, 100% of researchers indicated biometrics has an active role in developing agricultural scientific research and its most ideal solution for improving performance and building capacity through provision of training/refresher courses. In conclusion, the creation of a sustainable capacity building program in Biometrics will help researcher to produce science of high quality through use of effective statistical design, interpretation and presentation of results.