Characterisation of ten commercial sorghum genotypes grown under water-limited conditions for bioenergy production in mediterranean environment

The evaluation of commercial hybrids under limited water availability is of primary importance to assess Sorghum bicolor (Moench) as potential multipurpose bioenergy crop in Mediterranean drought prone environments. Ten genotypes were grown during three growing seasons (2010, 2011 and 2012) in open field trials and in pot experiments (2014). Phenological traits, biomass production, fibre content and biomass chemical composition were measured under irrigated and rainfed conditions. Differences in biomass production among the ten genotypes varied across years. In a three-year experiment significant differences were found among the ten genotypes in terms of duration of vegetative growth (P<0.05) and aboveground dry biomass production (P