SORGHUM

Sorghum/Jowar/Great millet/ Milo…

• One of the most important food crops of semiarid tropics
• Grown in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu,
Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh
• 5th most important cereal and a dietary staple
• Also grown for fodder purposes
• Camel of crops
 Sorghum bicolor
2n = 2x = 20
• Origin: East Africa , Ethiopia around 5000 years ago
• After domestication in this region, it spread to other
parts of Africa, India, China etc.

Distribution:
• A number of land races, wild forms found in S.E. Africa
• It is grown in Africa, south and central India, China,
Argentina, Australia and south and central plains of
US.
 Progenitors of sorghum
1. S.arundinaceum
2. S.verticilliflorum
3. S.sudanense
4. S.aethiopicum
 Classification :

• Right from 16th century there were number of classification for the
genus Sorghum.
• Snowden’s classification (1936) later refined by Garber (1950) and by
Dogget (1970).
 Harlan and De Wet (1972) classification
All sorghums are S.bicolor L.Moench. (diploid cultivated
types)
Based on inflorescence (from very open & loose to
compact) and spikelet morphology within panicle- 5 races
1.Bicolor (B):
• Grain elongate, long glumes clasping the grain which
may be completely covered or ¼ exposed, open panicle
2.Guinea (G):
• Grains flattened dorso-ventrally, long glumes, open
panicles, seed- small to large, hard, resistant to insect
damage, tolerant to flooding, West African race
3.Caudatum(C):
• Turtle backed grains, asymmetrical, glumes half the
length of the grain, good yield, bright seed colour,
important germplasm source
4.Kafir (K):
• Grains symmetrical (spherical), glumes clasping in
varying length, semi-compact to compact panicles,
agronomically important, East African race
5.Durra (D):
• Grains rounded obovate, wedge shaped at the base
and broadest slightly above the middle; glumes very
wide, early to late maturity, source of many useful
genes
Wild Sorghum sp.
• Tetraploid type- Johnson grass- S.halepense L.
(2n=4x=40)- indigenous to West Asia & North
Africa- vigorous plant with spreading rhizomes-
utilized for forage sorghum improvement
• S.sudanense: Utilized for improvement of forage
sorghum.
• S.nitidum: Found in Kodai Hills- has shoot fly
resistance and dormancy.
• S.staffii: Found in Southern districts, used for
inducing dormancy.
 Gene pool of sorghum (Harlan, 1972)
• Primary- Cultivated sorghum (S.bicolor
ssp.bicolor) & their wild and weedy relatives
(S.bicolor ssp.arundinaceum with 2n=20)
• Secondary- S.halepense with its tetraploid races
• Tertiary- Saccharum, Sorghastrum, Miscanthus
and related species
 Cultivated Sorghum
Grouped into two types
a) Tropical tall late maturing type adapted to short
day length, photo sensitive, longer internodes.
e.g. Land races. Eg. Peria Manjal Cholam; Chinna
Manjal Cholam; Sen Cholam, Talaivirichan Cholam,
Vellai Cholam; Irungu Cholam; Makkattai

b) Temperate dwarf types , adapted to longer day

length, photo insensitive, shorter internodes, long
panicles, high yield
 Breeding objectives

1. High grain yield

• Productivity genes are present in durra, roxburghi, Caudatum and Zera -
Zera.
• Direct components: Panicle length and breadth panicle weight, number
of primary branches, number of seeds / panicle and 100 seed weight.
• Indirect components: Plant height, leaf area index endosperm texture.
2. High forage yield
With high tonnage, more leafiness, juiciness, sweetness, good palatability
and higher digestibility.
Sorghum X Sudan grass is grown widely and has less problems of
hydrocyanic acid content (HCN).
3. Breeding for non-lodging sorghum
• Hybrid sorghum tall (90 days duration) grown during N.E monsoon has a
tendency to snap at nodes and lodge at maturity
• Dwarf character is conditioned by genes DW1 to DW4.
4. Dual purpose genotypes with high grain and fodder biomass potential
per unit time.
5. Early maturity
• Fit in multiple cropping programme. Co22 is the shortest duration having a
duration of 70 days.
• 105–100 days is optimum- can be grown in two seasons instead of a long
duration land race. e.g. Co25 - Co 26.
Tropical lines having dominant maturity gene Ma and temperate lines having
recessive ma gene.

6. Resistance to diseases like grain mould, downy mildew, Charcoal rot, Ergot
and sugary disease, rusts, leaf blight, leaf spots etc.
• The inheritance is complex and polygenic.
B) Disease Resistance:
• Head Mould: CSV-4, CSV-5, and SPV-35- incomplete dominance.
• Downy Mildew: CSV-4, CSV-5, SPV-105, and CSH-5 – Resistance is
recessive.
• Charcoal Rot: CSV -5, SPV-104
• Leaf Disease: 2219A, 2077A, CSH5, CSV-4, CSV-5, SPV-104, - Resistance
is recessive.
• Rust: 2219A, 296A, CS-3541, CSH-5, - Resistance is dominant.
The plant types have generally higher degree of resistance to foliar
diseases.
7. Resistance / Tolerance to insects like shoot fly, stem borer, gall midge
etc.
• Sources like S.nitidum, S.virgatum are available against pests.
• Some of the land races in south India like local irungu cholam are
resistant against shoot fly.
• Resistance may be - Non preference for oviposition because of presence
of trichomes.
• Antibiosis - Silica content in the plant body
• Recovery resistance by producing side tillers.
Pest Resistance:
• Shoot fly: IS-1034, 1054, 9136, 8314- Non preference for oviposition.
Stem Borer: IS-1054, 1034- Oviposition non preference
Midge: EC- 92792, DJ-6514, IS-18753 – Non preference of host-
susceptibility is dominant
8. Resistance to abiotic stresses like salinity, drought etc.
• 75% of sorghum is grown under rainfed condition.
9. Breeding for lines with low HCN content
• Dry land varieties -high HCN content in the stem during early
vegetative phase- limits the use of varieties as cattle feed
• Low HCN content exhibits partial dominance reaction.
• More than one gene involved in controlling this trait.
10. Breeding for quality characters like bread making, red grain for biscuit
making protein and lysine content.
• Madurai: Tirumangalam area biscuit is made from Sencholam found in
south India.
• Salem: boiled red grain used for consumption. The variety Paiyur 2 is a
red grain variety
11. Breeding for special traits like sweet sorghums There are two
types of sorghums.
a) Syrup Varieties: Syrup for table purpose can be produced from
this. This is also suitable for ethanol production.
b) Sugar Varieties: contains more of sugars and less of
combustible organics. Not suitable for ethanol production
compared to syrup varieties.
 Sweet sorghum
• Special type- capable of accumulating sugar in stem as in Sugarcane
• Processed to produce jaggery, syrup and fuel alcohol
• Can yield 30-50 tonnes green cane/ha + 1-2 tonnes grains/ha
• Grown in Kharif
• Green cane harvested along with or 4-5 weeks after grains are
harvested.
• NRC on Sorghum – identifies RSSV 59, RSSV46, RSSV 24, RSSV 41,
RSSV 57, NSS 219, NSS 216 with improved tonnage of green cane
and brix content
12. Breeding for Striga Resistance:
• Striga or Witch weed -root parasite on sorghum
• Strigol - stimulant produced by host -required for germination of
parasite.
• The resistance mechanism includes low production of stimulant,
mechanical barrier to haustorial penetration in the host plant and
unidentified antibiosis factors
• Indian cultivar N 13 and variety CSV 5- has mechanical resistance
13. To isolate alternate sources of cytoplasmic genic male sterile lines
• The existing CMS lines are having A1 cytoplasm as base
• other sources : A2 , A3, A4 and A5.
• But all of them are in grassy sorghum and susceptible to foliar diseases.
• local ones like Maldandi 35 GA, G.I.A. -they are season bound and long
duration.
 Breeding Procedure

• Often cross pollinated crop.

• To maintain varietal purity- ID- 400m
• Compared to other often pollinated crop like red
gram, maintenance of inbreds is easy in sorghum.
• By putting brown paper and selfing the genetic
purity can be maintained.
 BREEDING METHODS
1. Introduction : Varieties of milo and kafir sorghum introduced from USA
are used in conversion programme to convert the local long duration
photo sensitive varieties to short duration, non-photo sensitive lines.
2. Selection : Old varieties like Co1, Co2, Co4 are all selection made from
local land races.
Pure Line Selection:
• In this method superior land races are selected from local uniform
variety and grown as plant progenies in the next year. Uniform superior
progenies harvested and bulked as improved strain for further
evaluation. In varietal evaluation, if improved strain shows superiority
over the existing variety , it is released for commercial cultivation on
large scale.
Eg. PJ 4K, 16K, Vidisha 60-1, Aispuri, BP-53
 3. Hybridisation and selection
a) Pedigree Method:
This method consists of hybridization between desirable
complementary parental lines, followed by selection of superior
plants, in the segregating generation, till homozygosity is achieved.
i.e. F5/ F6. The selected plants are bagged to prevent out crossing.
Eg. CSV2, CSV3, CSV4, CSV5, CSV6, CSV7

CSV8R, CSV10, CSV11, CSV12 (Crosses between temperate x tropical

derivatives)
 3) Back Cross Breeding
It is used to transfer one or few inherited traits from donor to another
desirable genotype ( recipient parent) resistance to disease like grain mould,
downy mildew, rust, smut, and resistance to insect pest like midge, shoot fly,
stem borer could be introduced in desirable strain by back cross breeding.
Eg. Head smut resistance transferred to Combine 7078 in Indian Sorghum.
Similarly cytoplasmic genetic male sterility could also be introduced by this
method.
Co 20
• (Bongan hilo × Co1 ) - Co20 .
• Striga resistance was evolved by back crossing.
• By following backcross method of breeding sorghum conversion
programme was initiated.
• The long duration photosensitive germplasm was converted in to photo
insensitive short duration sorghums.
• This was done at USA. Similar programme was done at ICRISAT also.
.
 4. Heterosis Breeding
• Seeds of hybrid sorghum are produced using cytoplasmic genetic male
sterility typically known as A, B and R line system.
• Kafir 60 and Combine Kafir- 60 were initial m.s lines used in hybrid seed
production.
• Male sterile line : A line , maintainer line: B line
• Line A and B - isogenic except that line A is male sterile line and B is male
fertile.
• The difference lies only in cytoplasm- line A has sterile cytoplasm , line B
has fertile cytoplasm
• Any fertile line can be converted into male sterile by backcross breeding
method.
Maintenance of A, B and R Lines:
• Planting A and B line in 4:2 ratios in isolated field
• Maintenance of male sterile line A: Seed produced on A line is male
sterile.
• Line B is self fertile -growing crop isolation or bagging the heads of B line
plants, maintains B line.
• Line R is also self fertile -multiplied by planting in isolated field.
• In commercial seed production, bulk production of A, B and R line -
foundation seed production
• Production of A X R -certified seed production.
The popular hybrids are CSH-1, CSH-5, CSH-12, CSH-15 and CSH-16.
5. Mutation Breeding
• X ray mutant from CSV 5 (148)
• Co21 (699 Tall), Co 19 is a natural mutant from Co 26.
6. Population Improvement/ development of composites
• Random mating population are developed by intermixing component lines
with superior characters. MS genes ms3 and ms7 are introduced to
enhance random mating
• The local land races can be used as pollinators and by half sib family
selection, we can isolate lines.
• We can follow recurrent selection idea to develop superior inbreds.
7. Use of Apomictic lines
• Some apomictic lines have been identified which can be
utilised in breeding programme and by vegetative propagation
we can fix up heterosis. e.g. R473 from Hyderabad
 International Programme

• The International Crop Research Institute of Semi Arid Tropics

(ICRISAT) -1972 -Hyderabad -international centre for
improvement of grain yield and quality in sorghum.
Sorghum variety ICSV-112 (SPV-475) released as CSV-13 for
general cultivation in India.
ICSV 145- released as SAR 1-in striga endemic regions of India
ICRISAT’s sorghum hybrids ICSH 110, ICSH 86646, ICSH 86647 and
ICSH 86749 – shows promise in India
 National programmes
Organized sorghum improvement programme in India started in
1962, when ICAR initiated ‘Accelerated hybrid sorghum project’.
• Release of CSH-1 in 1964.
• All India Coordinated Sorghum Improvement Project- 1969-
Has evolved more than 13 hybrids, 15 HY strains, 26 forage
types etc.
• Intensification of basic research by establishing NRC (National
Research Centre) for Sorghum in 1987 at Hyderabad
BAJRA
Pennisetum glaucum (2n = 14)
• Place of Origin: West Africa.
• Taxonomy : The genus pennisetum : >140 species.
• Stapf (1954) -the genus Pennisetum in to five sections -1. Gymnothrix, 2.
Eupennisetum, 3. Penicillaria, 4. Heterostachya, 5. Brevivalvula
• The cultivated Pennisetum glaucum belongs to the section penicillaria
Origin and Putative Parents
• Stapf included 32 species in penicillaria.
• Of these 32 species , six annuals -wild and probable ancestors of the
cultivated one.
1. Pennisetum perottettii, 2. P. molllissimum, 3. P. violaceum, 4. P. versicolor,
5. P. adonense, 6. P. gymnothrix
• The cultivated species of Pennisetum - originated through hybridization
within these six species.
 Wild Species Utilized in Breeding

• P. purpureum -a rhizomatus perennial having chromosome number 2n = 28

• Bajra napier hybrid = BN- Tetraploid × Diploid - Triploid.
• P. squamulatum (2n = 46) - Drought and cold resistant having apomictic line
crossed with P. glaucum to evolve superior cold resistant fodder.
• P. orientale : used for transferring apomixis.
• P. setaceum, P. violaceum : To transfer male sterile genes to P. glaucum
• P. ciliare
 Breeding Objectives
1. Breeding for High Grain Yield
a) More number of Tillers
b) Well filled, Compact, Long panicle.
c) Heavy grains.
d) Uniformity of ripening.
Under irrigated conditions photo insensitivity and early maturity are
essential for multiple and relay cropping
2. Breeding for Improved Grain Quality
• It can be achieved by incorporating yellow endosperm to
improve vitamin A content
• or white endosperm to improve protein content.
3. Breeding for Drought Tolerance
• By evolving lines having shorter duration - can escape drought
• lines with more adventitious roots
• lines with high leaf water potential
• high chlorophyll stability index
Drought resistance – J-1270
4. Breeding for Disease Resistance
• Downy mildew , Ergot and smut, rust at later stage
• Lines having Local Bellary cytoplasm (732 A) are observed to
be downy mildew resistant.
• a. Downy mildew – Resistance donor- Ex Bornue
b. Ergot-IP-517, IP-1956, IP-1533.
5. Breeding for Alternate Source of Cytoplasm in Male Sterile Lines
• Original Tift 23 A evolved at Tifton, Georgia is highly susceptible to
downy mildew.
• Because of this the HB series went out of cultivation.
• The indigenous 732 A obtained from Bellary is resistant.
• Similarly L 111A of Ludhiana is also tolerant.
• A1, A2, A3 and A4 cytoplasm
• 732 A belongs to A4 cytoplasm.
6. Breeding for Sweet Cumbu to have High Forage Value
The forage bajra must have following characters.
a) high sugar content in the stem juice
b) Increased leaf number with more breadth.
c) Digestibility.
In this connection, a short day plant with photo sensitiveness is preferred
because they remain in vegetative phase for longer periods. It is ideal to
breed dwarf varieties with reduced stem height
Napier- bajra hybrids : E.g. K-677, D-1941.
 Breeding Methods
1. Introduction
• Hybrid bajra from Punjab
• Tift 23 A from USA
2. Selection
• Pure line selection: Co 2, Co 3,
Mass selection
• Co5
• Co6- selection from Nigerian accession MS 7625
• selected for high tillering, long panicle, dense seed setting and bold seeds
along with downy mildew resistance.
• The criteria are usually head characteristics, like compactness, length of
ear, weight of grain, uniformity of ripening etc.
• varieties developed- Jamnagar, Jaint, Pusa moti
3. Hybridisation and Selection
• Interspecific hybridisation.
• Pennisetum glaucum × P.purpureum
• Bajra napier hybrids
• The Interspecific hybrids between napier grass ( P. purpurium -4n) X
bajra ( P. americanum- 2n ) are Napier bajra hybrids
• Desharat and Yashawant famous for high yield.
• The plants tiller freely and a single clump may produce more than 50 tillers
under favorable climatic and soil conditions
• Unfortunately, the grass coarse-textured, the leaf blade and sheaths hairy,
leaf margins sharply serrated and stems less juicy and fibrous.
• 1953, a cross between Bajra (more succulent, leafy, fine-textured,
palatable, fast growing and drought resistant) and Napier to combine these
qualities with its high yielding potential.- Co3,Co4,Co5
4. Heterosis Breeding : Hybrid Bajra
• In earlier days before the identification of male sterile lines - protogyny
utilized- hybrids
• sowing both parents in the ratio of 1:1.
• discovery of cytoplasmic genic male sterile line Tift 23 A by Burton in
Tifton, Georgia
• Earlier hybrids of India viz., HB1, HB2 to HB5 - utilizing Tift 23 A.
• But due to susceptibility to downy mildew they went out of cultivation.
• To overcome the problem of downy mildew- male sterile lines L 111A and
732 A were isolated and at present used in breeding programme.
• X5 L111A × PT 1921
• X6 732 A × PT 3095.
• X 7 L111 A × PT 1890
• NHB 3 - 5071 A × J 104
• There are number of CMS lines developed by private agencies like Nath
seeds, Mahyco, Mahendra.
• Steps to produce hybrid bajra includes:-
– Development of inbreds through inbreeding and pure line
selection, (J-88, J-104, K-560, K-559, etc)
– CGMS under standard three line system (A, B, and R) to
produce hybrid seed.
• CMS line ‘A’ is multiplied by planting it with maintainer line B in
isolated field (1000m).
• Desirable R line is crossed with A line to produce the F1 hybrid.
• The anthers of the pollinator ( R line) should coincide with exertions of
stigma of A line
• R lines should provide pollens over long period to insure good seed
setting.
• Popular hybrids developed by cytoplasmic male sterility.
1. MH-179-821A X ICMP-451 (1987)
2. MH-169- 841A X D -23 (1988)
3. RHRBH- 8609 (Shradda) –RHRB-IA X RHRBI-138 (1990)
4. RHRBH -8924 (Saburi) – RHRBI-5A X RHRBI-458 (1995)
5. ICMH-451- 81 A X ICMP-451.
5. Population Improvement
• ICRISAT entry WCC 75 is an example for population improvement.
• This was developed from world composite by recurrent selection method.
• It was developed from derivatives of numerous crosses between diverse
sources of germplasm and Nigerian early maturing land races known as
‘Gero’ millets.
• Another example is ICMV 155 of ICRISAT.
6. Synthetic Varieties
• Synthetics are produced by crossing in isolation a number of lines tested
for their GCA. E.g.ICMS 7703.
• It is a result of crossing between 7 inbred lines of India x African crosses
• Synthetics : E.g. ICMS-7703, ICMV-87901.
• Composites : E.g. WC-C-75, PSB-8, HC-4, RHR-1, ICTP-8203, etc.
7. Mutation Breeding
• At IARI Tift 23 A was gamma irradiated and 5071 A resistant to downy
mildew was evolved.
• With this the hybrid NHB 3 was evolved (5071 A × J 104)