Sorghum is the most important cereal crop in Sub-Saharan Africa including Ethiopia. The productivity and production of the crop are not increased as expected due to many limitations in the generation of demand-driven technologies and innovation upscaling in integrated and impact-oriented approaches. The study was focused on sorghum production systems, factors affecting sorghum productivity, constraints, and opportunities for sorghum production. The study was conducted in three zones and five districts. Purposive and random sampling techniques were applied to select 123 households. OLS regression was used to analyze factors affecting sorghum productivities. In the study areas, the majority of the farmers were used local sorghum variety. Only 17.89% of sample households were used improved sorghum varieties include lalo, chemeda, and gemedi varieties. In all technology attributes improved sorghum varieties were better performance than the local variety. The regression model revealed that variables include: sex, age, education, improved variety, soil slope and fertility, TLU, and extension services were affected sorghum productivity positive and significant at 10%, 5%, and 1% significance level. Respective experts (BoANR, research centers, NGOs, and Universities) should be advised and support sorghum producers for enhancing sorghum productivity.

Keywords: Constraints, factors, OLS, Opportunities, smallholder, sorghum, and western Oromia