Designing a sorghum genetic improvement program

For ages farmers have exercised selection through saving and carrying forward the grain from healthy plants as seed for sowing the next crop. Plant breeders further augmented/enhanced the crop productivity, thus mediating directed evolution. The art of plant breeding lies in the breeder’s skills in observing plants with unique economic, environmental, nutritional and aesthetic characteristics. In this article, we briefl y describe various factors that need to be considered in launching a crop improvement program with emphasis on sorghum