SORGHUM
- AGRICULTURE
News:
These new sorghum
varieties might help sub-Saharan Africa meet nutritional needs
What's
in the news?
● Sorghum
is a significant crop cultivated in sub-Saharan Africa, with 300 million people
depending on it.
Sorghum:
● Sorghum
is one of the main coarse cereal crops
of India.
● India is second largest producer
of sorghum in the world.
Features:
● This
crop is ideally suited for semi-arid agroclimatic regions of the country and,
it gives reasonably good yield with minimal requirement of irrigation and
fertilizers as compare to other cereals such as Wheat & Rice.
● Mostly
cultivated in the semi-arid regions for
fodder to feed the large cattle population of the country as well as to
meet the demand of industrial applications.
● Sorghum
is grown in the kharif (rainy
season) and rabi (post rainy season)
but the share of kharif is higher both in terms of area under cultivation and
production.
○ Rabi
crop is almost entirely used for human consumption whereas kharif crop is not
very popular for human consumption and largely is used for animal feed, starch,
and alcohol industry.
● It
can grow on a wide range of soils.
○ Medium to deep black soils
are predominantly suitable for growing Sorghum.
Sorghum
and Irrigation:
● Only
5% of the area under sorghum in India is irrigated.
● Over
48% of the area under sorghum cultivation in the country is in Maharashtra and
Karnataka.
● In
India, the main sorghum belt receives an annual rainfall ranging from 400-1000
mm.
Nutrients
in Sorghum:
● The
grain is popular across the world because it has a low glycemic index, is
gluten-free and nutritious.
● The
lower the glycemic index of a
cereal, the lower is the relative rise in blood glucose level after two hours
of consuming it.
Production
Status: