Crop 9

Sorghum
Sorghum bicolor

Commonly called as Jowar, Great millet, Camel crop

Botanically Sorghum bicolor
o There are three species
o S halepense
S halepense and S miliacuem
o S propinquum
o S. bicolor with races as
Race bicolor
Race kafir
Race caudatum
Race durra
Race guinea
World area decreasing
o 50.2 M ha in 70s to 43.6 M ha in 1999
o Africa seen increased area 13.5 to 22.7M ha
Nigeria 2.7 to 7.6
Sudan 3.1 to 4.4
o N America 7.2 to 5.7
o S America 2.5 to 1.4
o Asia
20.8 to 12.9
World production
o 65.8 M t in 70s to 62.8 M t in 1999
o Africa seen increased with 12.7 to 20.4M t
Nigeria 3.3 to 8.4 (+)
Sudan 2.3 to 3.0 (+)
o N America 21.7 to 21.9 (+)
o S America 6.9 to 4.7 (-)
o Asia
19.7 to 13.5 (-)
World productivity
o 1.47 t in 70s to 1.44 t ha-1 in 1999
o In 1999
Argentina
- 4.4 t
USA - 4.4 t
China - 3.1 t
Ethiopia
- 1.3 t
Nigeria
- 1.1 t
India - 0.8 t (769kg only)

In India from 17 or 18 M to 10.4 M ha in 1999

Area
Production
Prosuctivity
Maharastra
5.8
5.4
0.92
Karnataka
2.1
1.8
0.83
MP
1.2
1.1
0.88
AP
1.0
0.7
0.73
Rajasthan
0.7
0.3
0.38
TN
0.5
0.5
1.03
Gujarat
0.5
0.3
0.64
Origin and distribution
o Native of Africa
North East of Africa..? ! Abyssinia
o Known to India from 15th Century
o To China 900AD
Distribution and adaptation
o Ranked 5th once but not now
o All parts of the world except cool NE part of Europe
o In India mainly on central & peninsular India
o Ranked 5th once but not now
o All parts of the world except cool NE part of Europe
o In India mainly on central & peninsular India
o Sorghum belts in India receives 400-1000mm rainfall
Distributed bet. Jun end to 1st week of Oct
o Plant remain practically dormant during periods of drought
But resume growth as soon as sufficient moisture - so as called
camel crop
Adaptation to limited rainfall and high temp is due to
o The leaves and stems are covered with a waxy material that reduces
transpiration
o T is also reduces by small leaf area
o They remain dormant during unfavorable weather and start grow once
favored
Climate suitable for sorghum
o Warm temperate and tropical crop
o Temp is found to have significant effect on phonology and duration
Photo-period insensitive temp controls PI
Obligate photoperiod sensitive photoperiod has to be met
necessarily
Facultative photoperiod sensitive a part / whole of photoperiod
can be met from temp alone
o Rate of kernel development is higher at higher temp than any other cereals
o Seed number and proline concentration are +vely correlated
o Early maturing cultivars have high proline
o In Kharif late onset of monsoon and prolonged rain major set backs

o Delayed sowing - more shoot fly

o Prolonged monsoon - grain mold incidence
o Low temp <13C at bloom adversely affect seed setting
Root
o Seminal
o Adventitious
o Nodal or crown
Stem or culm
o Alternating nodes & internodes
o Solid
o Stems are either dry or juice, insipid, sweet
Leaf
o May vary from 7-24
o Lacerate or linear lanceolate leaves
Sorghum poisoning
o Young plants including roots, especially leaves possess prussic acid or
Hydrocyanic acid (HCN)
Prussic acid is not present as it is
When a cyanide ion is degraded by en enzyme it is produced
Cyanogenic glycosides called dhurrin in a sorghum cell and an
enzyme beta-glycosidase in another cell
When the plant tissues are damaged either by freezing, chopping,
chewing by ruminants releases PA
o Causes losses to cattle when they grace young plants
The HCN content gets diluted as the age advances
Young leaves contain more
High N applied crop contains more
When high N with poor P also produces
When herbicide 2,4 D applied
o Prussic acid content in leaf is 3-25 times greater than stalks
o Toxic level of prussic acid is >200ppm
o After flowering/heading content reduces to safe level for feeding
o Individual animals differ in the ability to resist the poisoning
Sorghum injury
o The after effects of sorghum roots and stubbles on succeeding crop of
sorghum is called as sorghum injury
o This condition lasts for few months or until the sorghum residues decay
o Of course sorghum stubble takes longer time than other cereals being more
fibrous
o During the process they retain or remove considerable moisture
o While decaying lots of microbes are build up (sugar content more) and
they temporarily lockup N
Sorghum injury can be overcome

o Additional N
o Incubating with leguminous green manure
o Avoiding next crop immediately
Soils suitable for sorghum
o Wide variety of soils
o pH range 5.5 to 7.5
o It can tolerate considerable salinity
o Medium and black soils are predominantly used in India
Kharif Light soil
Rabi - black cotton soil
Seasons suitable for sorghum
o Both Kharif and Rabi in all India
o In TN
Jan-Feb (Thai)
Apr-May (Chittirai)
Jul-Aug (Aadi)
Sep-Oct (Purattasi)
Methods of raising Sorghum
o Irrigated
Direct seeded
Transplanted
o Rainfed
Direct sown
Advantages of transplanting
o Main field duration is reduced by 10 days
o Shoot fly which attacks direct sown crop during first three week can be
controlled
o Seedlings with chlorotic and downy mildew symptom can be eliminated
o Optimum population can be maintained
o Seed rate can be reduced
Nursery technique for transplanted crop
o Refer practical
o Seed rate 7.5kg in 7.5cents
o Treat the seeds
o Age of seedlings 18 days maximum
o Delayed planting reduces grain yield
Field preparation
o Deep tillage using mould board plough for red shallow and medium deep
soils
o In deep to very deep soils deep ploughing once in 2 or 3 years
o Off season tillage can help reducing the time
o FYM / Compost 12.5t / composted coir pith
o Ridges and furrows

o Furrow length 6 m
Time of planting / sowing
o Pre-monsoon sowing
Seed hardening
2-3 weeks ahead of monsoon
o Delayed sowing leads to shoot fly attack
o Grain mold attack
Spacing
o 45 rows x 15cm for plants (1.48 lakh)
o 60/30cm for paired row if inter-cropped
o A density of 1.8 lakh (45 x 12.5 or 60 x 9.5)
Seed rate (kg /ha)
o Transplanted 7.5
o Direct seeding 10.0
o Rainfed direct seeding 15.0
Varieties
o Development of hybrids Kafir x milo cross in USA
o After identification of male sterile line
o Before that natural selection in India not much yield improvement
o Hybrids in 60s in India, by then 90% area under hybrid in USA
o Today many hybrids and cultivars
o CSH is famous Hybrids in India
o CSV 1 -15, CSH 1-18
o CSH, 6, 9 are best for Kharif
o CSH 15R &18R best for Rabi
o For TN
CO 25 115-120 days
CO26 105-110 days
BSR 1 105-110 days
CSH 5, COH 4, COH 5 etc
Sowing
o Transplant single seedlings after the furrow is irrigated
o Transplant 2-3cm deep on the ridge half distance from top
For direct seeding -irrigated
o Seed rate 10kg/ha
o Treat the seeds and sow 2 seeds per hole
o Depth of sowing 2-3cm
Rainfed 15 kg, treated, deeper sowing
Nutrient management
o Generally not applied since cultivated in less important soil and area
o Response to N, P, K and micronutrients are already reported
o Schedule varies according to system, soil and season
Nutrient management

o In TN NPK recommended are

90:45:45 kg for irrigated
40-20-0 kg for rainfed
N splits as 50% basal 50% top at 15DAT / 25-30DAS
o All India
o Nitrogen kg /ha
Kharif season
o Light soil low rainfall
60
o Medium deep soil
- 80
Rabi season
o Rainfed medium deep
60
o Rainfed deep to very deep - 80
o Irrigated
- 80-100
N may be split applied as TN
o P plays vital role in sorghum
Increases harvest index
Increases grain wt and yield
Higher N uptake is associated with P uptake
Reason for poor yield in spite of higher N applied in poor
P in soil
30 kg for rainfed light soil
40 kg for irrigated black soil
o K fertilization
K deficiency is not a serious problem
K absorption by hybrids continues up to 90 DAS
After which there is loss of 14-18% from crop!
KUE is 8.3kg grain / kg K20 a study says
Response in farmers field of Alfisols is higher
May be 30 kg for irrigated
o Micrinutrients
Zn deficiency is wide spread
Iron nutrition is also important
More so in calcareous soil where FE is fixed by Ca
Response to Zn & Fe foliar is good for Kharif season
o Biofertilizers
Azotobactor
Azospirillum
Vermicomposting
INM is more important
Nutrient management
o Sweet sorghum - high energy sorghum
o They are grown for stalk with sugar, grain and syrup purpose
o Increased cane and sugar yield for increased NPK

without affecting the quality of cane and sugar

Adequate N & P is to be applied
Water management
o Average 400 mm
o Cool rainy season 350-500mm
o Summer 600-700mm
Irrigation
o In general Kharif is not irrigated
o Rabi residual moisture + supplemental
o Summer fully irrigated
Irrigation schedule
o Soil moisture regime
75% depletion in top 0-30cm soil
50% in summer
o Critical stage approach
FPI 25-30 DAS
Flag leaf 50-55 DAS
Flowering 60-70 DAS
Grain filling 80-90 DAS
Irrigation schedule
o Wilting symptom
In this approach there will be reduction in yield
o IW/CPE ratio
0.4 was found to be economical
However 0.6 was found to give higher grain yield
It can perform well up to 1.0 during non-rainy seasons
WUE
o Increased with increased N
o From 6.8 kg/ha mm to for no N to 12.3kg for 80kg N
Inter cultural operations
o Thinning and gap filling to be completed before 10-15 after emergence
o Weeding
Weed free situation for 5 weeks
Herbicides
Atrazine 0.25 for pure crop
Pendimethalin for pulses inter cropped situation
Striga management
Striga management
o Witch weed (Striga asiatica, S lutea, S. hermonthica)
o Control measures
Post emergence application of 2,4 D Na salt 2.0kg/ha at 25-30
DAS
Intercropping with redgram

Crop rotation with trap crop like sunflower, groundnut, cowpea

they induce weeds to germinate but not affected
Heavy application of N & FYM
Spraying urea 10% solution 25-30 DAS
Using germination stimulants like Strigol & Ethylene

Harvest
o When the grain becomes hard and less than 25% moisture
o Need not wait for stubble and leaf to dry.
because hybrid sorghum appears green even after maturity
o Harvest the ear head then the plant
o For sweet sorghum after ear head, stem should be cut within 12 hours
o Ear heads are threshed by threshers
o Grains dried and dried at 10-12% moisture
Sorghum based cropping systems
o Intercropping with pulses and oilseeds
Redgram, groundnut, castor, all pulses
o Double cropping
Kharif sorghum - Rabi sorghum
When double cropping is not possible due to short growing season
Then Ratooning
Sorghum Ratooning is favorable
o Under rainfed condition with good rainfall but sufficient enough to
support double cropping
o Under rainfed condition, where plant fodder crop grain crop summer
grain crop
o Plant crop harvested for fodder and then ratooned may be for the areas
where fodder demand.
Sorghum Ratooning tips for management
o Multi-cut forage varieties are available CO 25, CO26, CSH 5
o Cut the main crop leaving more than 5cm (15cm maximum)
o Clear the stubbles immediately after harvest
o Remove the first two sprouts allow only 2 tillers
o Apply 100 :50: 0 kg & N in 2 splits
15 days after cutting and again 45th day
P may be applied along with first N split
o Pest and disease management is to be given more priority
o Other managements as per planted crop.
o Maturity is advanced by 10-15 days compared to planted crop
Special practices
o Transplanting
o Seed hardening
o Ratooning

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