Diseases: these tend to be more serious in warmer, more humid conditions:
Anthracnose is very common. Stems and leaves become reddish or purple, the
leaves dry up and stems may rot and fall over.
Leaf Blight, caused by Helminthosporium, attacks both seedlings and mature
plants.
Covered Smut. The developing seed is replaced by grey sacs containing black
spores. It is seed-borne, and can be very damaging, though it can be controlled with
seed dressings.
Loose Smut is less damaging than covered smut. Black spores are released into
the air. This smut can also be controlled with seed dressings.
Head Smut. The entire head becomes a mass of brown spores, but normally only
a few heads are infected. Control: as the spores are carried over in the soil, seed
dressing is not effective. All infected heads should be destroyed, by burning.
YIELD
Average yields of sorghum vary widely, from between 300 and 3000 kg/ha for
rainfed crops, to 2–6 MT/ha for irrigated crops. According to FAO the average for
the years 1988/90 was 0.4–3.4 MT/ha, for the bottom 10% and top 10% of producer
countries respectively.
These figures are predicted to rise to 0.6–3.7 MT/ha by the year 2010.
The FAO estimated the average global yield for the year 2004 was 1.4 MT/ha,
varying from the highest in Egypt (5.9 MT/ha) to the lowest in Eritrea (272 kg/ha).
Hybrid varieties in ideal conditions can yield 10 MT/ha plus.
In addition to this yield of seed or grain, the stalks are also often eaten by man
and animals, and are also used as construction material. This fact means that in some
circumstances lower yielding but very tall varieties may be just as useful as higher
yielding dwarf varieties.
UTILISATION
Sorghum is the staple food in many of the drier parts of Africa, India and China.
The grain is mainly used in different types of leavened and unleavened flat
bread (kisra in Sudan), in porridge (ugali, kali, cuscur, etc.) or low quality
enjera. The entire grain can be boiled in soup or water, or made into beer
valuable flours such as wheat, maize & teff.
Sorgos are used for syrup manufacture, and their stems are also eaten by
humans when they are young and fresh (the stems, not the humans).
stover
in poor countries; more commonly it is the stems and dry leaves from the
harvested plants that are fed to animals. If animals graze a harvested, ratooning
sorghum field there is a possibility that the young plants may contain toxic
levels of HCN (hydrocyanic, or prussic, acid).
The stems of taller, more vigorous varieties are used for building material, and
for making baskets, for cooking fuel and for heating.•
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(soowa, t’alla, pombe, etc). Sorghum flour is often added to bulk up other more139
As animal food (“”). Sometimes the grain is fed, though this is a rare luxury