Sorghum, a crop of substance

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench) is the fifth most important cereal crop by area after wheat, rice, maize and barley in the world. Traditionally, a staple food crop for millions of poor in the semi-arid tropics (SAT) of Africa and Asia, its importance as a fodder and feed crop for livestock steadily increased over the last decade or two. It is cultivated on marginal, fragile drought-prone environments in SAT. In mid- 1970s, the productivity levels of sorghum were <0.7 t ha-1 in Africa, <0.8 t ha-1 in Asia and