Sorghum Practice in Sindh, Pakistan

By Mrs. Farzana Panhwar, May 2005

Author: Farzana Panhwar (Mrs)
Address: 157-C, Unit No.2, Latifabad, Hyderabad
(Sindh), Pakistan
E-mail: [email protected]
[email protected]
Fax: 92-21-5830826 and 92-221-860410
Publisher: Digitalverlag GmbH, Germany
www.ChemLin.com
© 2005 Digitalverlag GmbH, Germany
Edition ChemLin
www.ChemLin.com
Sorghum Practice in Sindh, Pakistan
Sorghum Practice in Sindh, Pakistan
Introduction
Pakistan has a geographical area of 796,095 square kilometers. It lies between 2
3 and 27 degrees North
Latitude and 61 and 76 degrees East Longitude in the northern hemisphere. Admini
stratively the country is
divided in to four provinces, Punjab, Sindh, Northwest Frontier Province and Bal
ouchistan.
Sorghum is an important coarse grain summer crops, which can be grown successful
ly in dry, aired condition
and on the marginal soils. Since the people like wheat more as a human food, so
sorghum production has
decline in the past 60 years when new barrages made winter irrigation of wheat m
ore economic proposition.
Since sorghum is also be used as feed and fodder source, its importance in poult
ry sector is expected to
increase.
The Punjab and Sindh are the major sorghum producing Provinces of Pakistan contr
ibuting respectively 47%
and 26% of the total acreage. About 60% of the total area under this crop is irr
igated, while the rest is rain-feed.
The area under sorghum has fluctuated due to declining trends of its use as food
. This is due to the land under
cultivation to sorghum begin shifted to cotton, summer and wheat in winter. Ther
e are no changes in the climatic
patterns but perennial irrigation has changed the agriculture economy altogether
.
In Pakistan the area under sorghum and millet on the average is 1.5 million hect
ares and the yield is
approximately 5.4 tonnes/hectare. The yield is more than wheat and rice, which s
tand at 3.0, 2.2 tonnes/hectare.
These yields are much lower than those millet and sorghum. However the demand fo
r millet and sorghum is
much less and there is no direct competition as wheat essentially is winter crop
and sorghum is a summer crop.
Its direct competitor is cotton and sugar-cane. There also is no competition wit
h rice as it is confined to water-
logged areas, where sorghum can have very low yields.
Sorghum is also classified among aggresses and is capable of rapid growth and hi
gh yields.
Climate
It need moderate rainfall and minimum twelve inches of rain from time of sowing
to harvest. Average
temperature will be 80-90 °F for grain production and maturity.
Soils
It can be grown in a variety of soils heavy and light alluviums, red, gray, yell
ow loams and also sandy soils.
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Sorghum Practice in Sindh, Pakistan
Varieties or Genes
The cultivated sorghum might have evolved from wild Arundinacea. According to Sn
owden (1936) and following
are closely related S. Arundinaces, S. Verticelliflorum, S. Sudanense.
â ¢
The genetically evolved variety show some resistance to insects, dwarf size, ear
ly maturity, photo-
insensitiveness and higher in biomass production.
â ¢
Genes for productivity are available in : Durra, Conspicum, Caudaltum and Zeraze
ra.
Varieties
Sorghum can be divided in to 3 categories i.e., summer winter and fodder crops.
These can further be
categorized as below:
Major sorghum varieties of the world Popular cultivators
- Sudan. Piper, Sweet, Sudan, Trudan, Jumbo.
- Open pollinated sorghum. Sugar drip.
- Sorghum Traditional. Speed feed, Forager, Rising fast,
Zulu, Cow Chow, High Pro.
- Sorghum Sweet. Sugar graze, Honey drip, FS-26.
Sweet Sorghum
Its characteristics are:
- Stem thick.
- Medium speed of growth.
- Recovery after cutting or grazing is slower than other sorghum forage type.
- Flowering comes later.
Sweet sorghum varieties
- Sweet sorghum varieties are JS-20, JS-263, JS-29/1, Sweet Sudan-59-3, Vidisa-
60-1, Sundia-1049, M-
35/1, Co-11, and M.P. Chari. They yield 700-800 q/ha.
Cultivated sorghum (S. bicolor ssp, bicolor)
It has a number of cultivators listed below:
- Basic race (bicolor, guinea caudaturm, kefir and durra).
- Hybrid races (guinea-bicolor, cadatum-cicolor, kafir-bicolor, durra-bicolor,
guinea-caudatum, guinea-kafir,
guinea-durra, kafir-caudaturm, durra-caudatum and kafir-durra).
- Wild sorghums (S. bicolor ssp, arundinaceum spontaneous).
- Six races (arundi-naceum, aethiopicum, virgatum, verticuliform and propinquum
).
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Sorghum Practice in Sindh, Pakistan
Rainy season sorghum varieties
These varieties are:
- CSH5.
- SPV-51.
Post-rainy season sorghum varieties
These are:
- SPV-86.
- M35-1.
Summer sorghum varieties.
These varieties are:
P-J, 4-K, 8-K, 16-K, 24-K, D-340, ADP-1, ADP-2, CO-1, CO-2, CO-3, CO-10, CO-11,
Nandyal, Fulgar, While,
Fulgar, Yellow, Bilichigan, 20, 29/1, 263, 893, 8B, 5 Tall, Y-3 and G-3.
Winter sorghum varieties.
H-1, 1735-M, 47-3, N-1, N-2, N-3, N-4, N-6, N-6, Maldandi, 35-1, 47-3, Budhperio
-53, Broach-8, N.D-15, P.J, 3-
R, 4-R, 7-R, Billijola (S2), Yenegar, S22, M.35-1, and M.47-3.
Fodder sorghum varieties of South Asia
South Asia has many varieties. A few are:
Imphi, Nandyal, Chesalio, 10-2 Nanyal, Talaviri, Chong, Chinnamangal, Vellaichol
am, Kakki, Volgar, Irungu,
Sundhia, Nilwa and nandyal.
Cereal cum fodder varieties
The varieties suitable for cereal cum fodder are:
1-GFRI-S-427, 1-GFRI-S-452, 1-GFRI-S-700, J-S-6090 and J.S. 73153. Their yield p
otential of fodder is 400-
500 q/ha.
Forage varieties
The forage sorghum varieties are:
JS-731500, JL-44 and SSG-59-3 with yield potential of 500-600 q/ha.
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Sorghum Practice in Sindh, Pakistan

Other less important sorghum varieties
Some other varieties are:
Milo, Hegari, Feterita, Durras, Shallus, Kaoligas. Meloland, Caprock, Red-lane,
Combined Kafir Goga, Chutiala,
Bodh, Tundi, Rattore, Sarokartuho, Red-turi, Red-Janpur, Badgar.
Sorghum (sorghum Vulagare Pers)
It is staple food of the poor classes, Grain may be broken and cooked in the sam
e way as rice. It can be ground
and flour used for a variety of preparation, inferior only to wheat for bread ma
king.
Sorghum varieties of Sindh
Some more acceptable and suitable varieties are:
Coga, Chutiola, Bodh, Tundi, Rattor and Sororkartunho, Red-turt, Red-Janpur and
Badgar are grown in Sindh.
Recent introduction in Pakistan
Recently meloland caprock, red-lane and combined kafir have been introduced in P
akistan. The disadvantages
of these varieties are:
- They need high doses of fertilizers, though yields is more than the old varie
ties.
- They have poor grain colour and quality and are more susceptible to pest atta
ck.
- They have relatively low stability under adverse conditions.
- They have low fodder colour and dry stalk output.
Planting season
March to July is the time of sowing for seed, the seed rate is 50 kg/ha and Marc
h to October is the season for
fodder production.
Existing cultural practices in Sindh
The current rain yield of sorghum in Sindh is 2500 kgs/ha. This is due to poor c
ultural practices namely:
- Inadequate fertilizer use.
- Poor land preparation.
- Thin plant population (Traditional broadcasting method, results in uneven see
d distribution, low germination
and patchy crop).
- The attack of common insect and pests, stem borer and shoot-fly.
- Thinning of crops for fodder, which results in low stand and yield.
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Sorghum Practice in Sindh, Pakistan
Fertilising
Sorghum requires lot of fertiliser and its fertiliser requirements are:
- 125 kgs Super Phosphate/ha.
- 125 kgs Sulphate or Muriate of Potash/ha.
- 125 kgs Urea/ha. (Usually this is required at the time of planting).
- The Nitrogen fertiliser should not allowed to contact the seed, otherwise poo
r germination will result. After
each grazing the nitrogen fertiliser is needed.
Intercropping
The intercropping patterns of Sindh are:
- Sorghum-berseem clover-bajra-millet.
- Maize-berseem clover-bajra-cowpea.
- Sorghum-berseem clover-mize-cowea.
- Bajra-turnip-oat-maize-cowpea.
- Sorghum-igeon pea. The latter used as intercrop.
Yield of high density planting
Higher plant population per unit land results in to following yields of fodder a
cre:
Yield of dry crop vary from 400 to 800 Ibs of grain and 3,000 to 4,000 Ibs of fo
dder per hectare.
Pollination
Sorghum is predominately self-pollinated.
Grazing
Strip grazing or forage harvesting is better than allowing cattle to graze the w
hole paddock.
Insects attacking stalks, leaves and roots
Insect attacking in sorghum are:
- Shootfly.
- Stem borer.
- Midge.
- Head mould.
- Charcoal rot.
- Root-rot.
- Stalk borrs (sesamia Cretica and Sesamia Calamistis).
- Corn-worms (Heliothis Zeac and Heliothis Obsoleta).
- Sorghum files (Therigona Exigna A. Indica and A. Quadriponcatat).
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Sorghum Practice in Sindh, Pakistan

Diseases attacking the head
The three principle types of smut accoutering on sorghum are:
- Covered-Kernel Smut (sphacelotheca Sorghi).
- Loose-Kernel Smut (Spacelotheca Crventa).
- Gead Smut (sphacelotheca Reiliana).
Uses
The local varieties contain the following important ingredients:
- 7.4 to 9.3% protein.
- 1.9 to 2.5% Lysine.
- 9.3 to 11.6% Leucine.
- The sorghum protein is deficient in Lysine and rich in Leucine : Lycine ratio
.
Important uses of sorghum are grains, fodder, ethanol production, brewing and fe
rmentation industries.
Sorghum flour is used as a binder and stiffening agent for paper, sugar and alco
hol manufacture and many other
fermentation products.
Sorghum is an annual crops and requiring planting every year. Its forage provide
large quantities of feed over a
short space of time. The are valuable for intensive grazing or to fill in season
al gaps of feed supplies.
Poisonous sorghum stages
Forage sorghum contain poisonous cyanogenic glucosides during young growth and e
arly regrowth. These are
converted to hydrogen cyanide and when eaten, can kill livestock. The precaution
to avoid poisoning are:
- No graze new growth when below 75cm in height.
- No graze stress crop.
- The empty stock not allowed to feed sorghum.
- Select, on of low prussic acid varieties.
Cure against positioning
In case of poisoning, cattle is drenched with 69ml of photographic hypo in 500ml
of water.
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Sorghum Practice in Sindh, Pakistan

CONCLUSION
Breeding needs
In Pakistan the farmer are using poor quality of seeds. The existing varieties a
re susceptible to seed borne
diseases such as smut, leaf-blight and downy mildew. Research efforts are needed
to develop new varieties
with inbred resistance to disease breeding. The basis of breeding should be:
- Increased grain yield and fodder.
- Plant height.
- Seeding vigour.
- Leaf area index.
- Emergence of seed through soil crust.
- Shoot maturity period.
- Seed colour.
- Quality protein value of seed and fodder.
- Endosperm texture.
- Panicle length and breadth.
- Panicle weight.
- Insect and disease resistance.
- Nutritional quality.
- High lysine content.
- Heat resistance.
- Drought tolerance.
- Plant, soil and water management lead-in to most economic cost of bye-product
.
REFERENCES
1. Arnon, I, 1972, Crop Production in Dry Regions, Vol.2, National Book Foundat
ion of Pakistan, (Sorghum &
Millets pp. 92-135).
2. Chopra, V.L., 1989, Plant Breeding, Theory and Practice, Oxford & IBH Publis
hing Co., (Often Grass -
Pollinated Crops: Sorghum pp. 225-233).
3. Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Government of Pakistan, 1988, Report of th
e National Commission on
Agriculture.
4. Raghavan, D., 1961, Handbook of Agriculture, Indian Council of Agricultural
Research, New Delhi,
(Sorghum pp. 148-153).
5. Ram, Mahabal, 1986, High Yielding Varieties of Crops, 2nd Edition, oxford &
IBH Publishing Co., (Fodder
Crop. pp. 549-579).
6. Tata, S.N., 1987, Handbook of Agriculture, Indian Council of Agricultural Re
search, New Delhi, (Sorghum
pp. 815-827).
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Sorghum Practice in Sindh, Pakistan
Author: Farzana Panhwar (Mrs)
Address: 157-C, Unit No.2, Latifabad, Hyderabad
(Sindh), Pakistan.
E-mail: [email protected]
[email protected]
Fax: 92-21-5830826 and 92-221-860410
Publisher: ChemLin
http://www.ChemLin.com
May 11, 2005
More articles of Mrs. Farzana Panhwar see: http://www.ChemLin.de/publications/in
dex.htm
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