Sweet sorghum—a local fodder with great potential

Abstract

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) is the fifth most important cereal crop in acreage and fourth most important in production in the world and is the dietary staple of more than 500 million people in 100 countries, primarily in the developing world. The grain is mainly used as animal feed in the developed world. Sorghum is mostly grown in the semi-arid tropics of the world under dryland conditions with low and erratic rainfall. Though it can survive on about 300 mm rainfall, it responds favourably to irrigation.As much as 50% of farmers' income from the sorghum crop in semi-arid tropics of India reportedly comes from the sale of the crop residue at urban fodder markets. In 2009 in India grain sorghum was planted on 7.7 million hectares and produced about 7.5 million tonnes of grain, with a low productivity of one-fourth that in the United States of America. Sorghum is also a good source of green fodder due to its quick growth, high yield and good quality. Therefore, grain sorghum is already being used as a dual-purpose crop in most areas of India.Sorghum with sugar-rich juicy stalks (called sweet sorghum) is emerging as an important biofuel crop. Sweet sorghum has been studied for ethanol production and found to have lower crop production inputs of energy per litre of potential ethanol than sugar beet, fodder beet, corn and sugarcane. Canopy water use efficiency of sweet sorghum has been found to be higher than that of other C 4 crops like maize and grain sorghum under both well-watered and water-stress conditions. However, though it is a well-known crop which can supply food, fodder, fiber and fuel it has not been studied much as a fodder crop.Sweet sorghum probably differs from grain sorghum by only a few genes that control plant height and the presence of juice in stem and sugar in the juice. Substantial genotype variation has been reported to exist in fodder quantity and quality among different cultivars of sweet sorghum. There is plenty of genetic variation for all the component traits of sugar yield, stalk girth, days to 50% flowering and stalk-stover ratio. Also heritability is high for plant height, flowering time and test weight. Several brown mid-rib mutations have been reported in sweet sorghum which increase the digestibility of the plants by reducing the lignin content. Therefore breeders can manipulate the genes in the sweet sorghum plant to increase animal productivity provided specific breeding objectives are established. Use of molecular markers and quantitative trait loci are expected to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of sweet sorghum improvement.Sweet sorghum hybrids have been reported to produce higher sugar yield (21%) and higher grain yield (15%) than non-sweet sorghum hybrids in the rainy season indicating that there is no trade-off between grain and sugar. Even the quality of stover was often the best in genotypes with higher grain yields. The already standardized package of agronomic practices for grain sorghum can be applicable to sweet sorghum. However, improved region-specif...

Bioethanol Production from Stalk Residues of Chiquere and Gebabe Varieties of Sweet Sorghum

“…Moisture content analysis is used for the determination of proportionality of solid-to-liquid ratio in the pretreatment and hydrolysis method; with increasing moisture content, it affects the product quality. Again, moisture content affects the ability of conversion of disaccharide sugar into monosaccharide sugar, storage stability, processing behavior, and quality and appearance of sugar [ 33 ]. The analysis of total moisture is used to determine other properties such as volatile matter.…”

Improvement Phesio-Chemical Sensory and Microbiological Characters of Sweet Sorghum

“…At the end of this stage, herbal extracts are added. When the final °Brix of concentrated juice (syrup) was 72° to 76°Brix after cooling, heating was completely stopped as described by Nimbkar et al (2006).…”

“…54-9 sugar cane variety. Nimbkar et al (2006) showed that sorghum syrup produced from 'Madhura' hybrid sweet sorghum cultivar was preferable in colour than cane syrup. Sweet sorghum syrup can be used as a popular food and liquid sweetener in various food products (Elena, 2007).…”

Adaptation des animaux d’élevage aux multiples contraintes des régions chaudes

“…Cette option est plus facile à mettre en oeuvre mais sa durabilité est incertaine et ses résultats sont non mesurables en l'absence de contrôles de performances. Des expériences réussies ont été rapportées (amélioration du poids vif à 3 et 6 mois chez des chevreaux du Maharashtra en Inde grâce au croisement avec la race Boer, Nimbkar et al 2000) mais des échecs également (au Kenya, les chèvres East African et les Galla sont tolérantes à l'infection par Trypanosoma congolense tandis que les Saanen et leurs croisements en meurent (Griffin et Allonby 1979)). Chez le poulet, de nombreux programmes d'introduction de coqs améliorateurs n'ont pas été suivis d'effet, par manque d'organisation de la filière donnant lieu à des croisements non contrôlés, mais aussi par la perte de la capacité d'incubation naturelle des poules croisées en conditions villageoises.…”