Gilles Trouche
Sorghum Value Chain Correspondent
Montpellier, France
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Thanks to its plasticity and wide range of forms (phenotypes), sorghum can be integrated into many cropping systems in tropical and temperate zones. Furthermore, it remains a vital food crop for people in arid and semi-arid tropical regions. Its capacity to provide numerous ecosystem services makes it a crop of the future.
Making sorghum substantially more competitive (boosting yield potential and tailoring grain quality to market demand) in areas where cereal crop intensification is under way.
Making production more consistent by maintaining good grain quality (in sanitary, technological and nutritional terms) in zones with strong climatic constraints, where sorghum is primarily a subsistence crop.
Diversifying food use of grain sorghum in Africa to boost producer incomes and create jobs in rural areas.
Developing food and non-food use of multi-purpose sweet sorghums.
Making better use of sorghum's potential to contribute to agro-ecological intensification as a pest and disease regulator and/or cover crop.
Developing varieties and crop management sequences for temperate supply chains and building stakeholder networks for biomass sorghum (animal feed, energy, construction).
Making better use of sorghum's potential to provide ecosystem services (polluted soil detoxification or stabilization, etc).